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NICHOLSON B ADAM 5^ Ph t> 

THE RpMANTIC DRAMAS 
&ARCIA duTIERREZ 




INJTITUTOm ±asEspa&as 

I»I../E*TA»OJ KJNIDOS 
NEW YORK. 1922 



The Romantic Dramas 

of 

Garcia Gutierrez 



The Institute of International Education 

INSTITUTO de las ESPANAS 
en los ESTADOS UNIDOS 

419 West 117th Street, New York City 



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Lo que se puede aprender en Espana, por Joaquin 

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The Romantic Dramas of Garcia Gutierrez, by 
Nicholson B. Adams, Ph. D., Instructor in 
Teachers College, Columbia University 1.00 



Memoria del Curso 1920-1921 (edition en ingles y 

en espahol) 
Centro de Estudios historicos. — Courses in Spanish 

Language and Literature for foreigners. Madrid, 

1922. 11th year. 



The Romantic Dramas 
of Garcia Gutierrez 

by 
NICHOLSON B. ADAMS, Ph. D. 

Instructor in French and Spanish, Teachers College, 
Columbia University. 










Es propiedad. 

Derechos reservados 

para todos los paises. 



Copyright, 1922, 
by the Instituto de las Espanas 



©CI.A674612 

Carranza & Co., Inc., impresores, New York. 

JUN 16 



PREFACE 

Since the number of special works devoted to the 
Romantic movement in Spain is not large, and since, 
as far as the author has been able to ascertain, there 
is no work in English dealing particularly with Garcia 
Gutierrez, it is hoped that this modest treatise may be 
of service to those interested in Spanish Romanticism 
and perhaps to students of Spanish literature in gen- 
eral. The author's own interest in this period is keen, 
and he hopes to do further work upon Garcia Gutie- 
rrez and his contemporaries. If by the publication 
of this work he can in any way aid others with 
similar interests, he will be more than satisfied. 

The first chapter of this book does not claim 
to be a complete biography gleaned from original 
sources; it is given for the convenience of those who 
might wish to refresh their memories upon the al- 
ready known facts of the life of Garcia Gutierrez. 

The author wishes to acknowledge with many 
thanks his indebtedness to Professor Federico de 
Onis, of Columbia University, for constant aid and 
most helpful criticism; to Professor John L. Gerig, 
Columbia, and Henri Chamard, Visiting Professor 
at Columbia, for very valuable suggestions; and to 
Professor Henry Alfred Todd of Columbia for his 
most kindly encouragement and aid at every stage 
of this work, including the correction of the proofs. 

N.B.A. 

Columbia University, 
April, ip22. 



THE ROMANTIC DRAMAS 
OF GARCIA GUTIERREZ 



CHAPTER I. 

Biographical Sketch. 

Antonio Garcia Gutierrez was born in the village 
of Chiclana, near Cadiz, on July 5, 1813. 1 His 
father, a poor artisan, was ambitious for his son, 
and gave him the best schooling possible. The report 
of one of his first teachers, a certain Sr. Galante, 
must have been very discouraging to the anxious 
parents, for he assured them that their boy Antonio 
would never learn to read, much less to write. 
Nevertheless he passed successfully through the ele- 
mentary schools, and matriculated under the Faculty 
of Medicine in the University of Cadiz. The study 
of medicine, however, had no attractions for him, 
and the closing of the universities by an ominous 
decree of Ferdinand VII must have come as a great 
relief to him. Throughout his school career he had 
had the habit of scribbling verses instead of studying, 



1 For the sources of this biography, see Obras escogidas de 
Don Antonio Garcia Gutierrez, Madrid, 1866, pp. v-xxii and 
Autores dramdticos contempordneos, by Novo y Colson, Madrid, 
1881, vol. I. pp. 81-96. 



Biographical Sketch 

a habit which his father found highly reprehen- 
sible and took stern measures to repress. Antonio, 
however, not to be thwarted, conceived the idea of 
taking advantage of his father's near-sightedness, 
and began to write in characters so fine that his 
productions escaped parental notice — but at the 
same time almost ruined his own eyesight. His eyes 
continued to give him trouble all his life. 

By the time he was twenty, the young man's 
fondness for writing had developed into a real pas- 
sion, and he resolved forthwith to break into the 
world of letters. Chafing under his father's disap- 
proval and hindrance, and impatient to begin his 
chosen career, he formed the desperate plan of going 
to Madrid. A friend agreed to share his enterprise, 
Garcia Gutierrez's literary baggage at the time con- 
sisted of two comedies, Una noche de baile, and 
Peor es urgallo, and two tragedies, Selim, hijo de 
Bayaceto and Fingal. The two friends set out on 
foot August 16, 1833 and after spending seventeen 
days on the road reached Madrid September 2. 

The foremost theatrical producer at the time in 
Madrid was the Frenchman Juan Grimaldi. He had 
been highly successful in his play Todo lo vence 
amor, better known by its sub-title La pata de 
cabra. It is described on its title-page as a "melo- 
mimo-drama mitologico-burlesco de magia y de gran- 
de espectaculo," and fully justifies its description. 
Grimaldi was now manager of the two oldest theaters 
in Madrid, the Teatro de la Cruz (founded 1579) 



10 



The Romantic Dramas of Garcia Gutierrez 

and the Teatro del Principe (1582). His best actress 
was Conception Rodriguez, who was also his wife. 
It was to Grimaldi, then, that Garcia Gutierrez had 
recourse. The comedy Una noche de baile had been 
read at the Cafe del Principe by Larra, Espronceda 
and Ventura de la Vega, and had been viewed with 
favor by them. Although Grimaldi did not produce 
the play, he must have been favorably impressed 
with the author, for he was instrumental in securing 
for him a modest position on the editorial staff of 
the Revista Espanola. 

While this Review gave the aspiring dramatist 
an opportunity to see the plays then being presented 
in Madrid and enabled him to make a scant living, 
he soon saw that fame and fortune were not to be 
attained by his contributions to its columns. More- 
over his predilection w T as for the drama. Since his 
original plays had not been considered worthy of 
production, he tried his hand at translation. His 
first effort, a Spanish version of Scribe's Le Vampire, 
was played in Madrid in October, 1834. The original 
had been put on in Paris at the Theatre du Vaude- 
ville in 1820. The next year, 1835, saw the pre- 
sentation of two more translations from Scribe. The 
first bore the tile of Batilde, from the name of the 
heroine of La Bohemienne, ou V Aamerique en 1775, 
presented at the Theatre du Gymnase in 1829. Le 
Quaker et la Danseuse, shown at the same theatre 
in 1831, bore in Spanish the title El cudkero y la 



1 1 



Biographical Sketch 

comica. This play, and also El vampiro, had only 
one act. Batilde had five. 

It was during these years that Romanticism be- 
came definitely established in Spain. Larra's Macias 
was played in 1834, and the Don Alvaro of the 
Duke of Rivas and the Alfredo of Pacheco in the 
following year. The influence of these plays upon 
Garcia Gutierrez was marked and immediate. He 
resolved to try something of this new kind, which 
had been so successful. The actual writing of El 
trovador, according to Cayetano Rosell (Autores 
dramdticos contempordneos, p. 85) required only 
five months. It was offered to Grimaldi, who ac- 
cepted it for presentation in the Teatro de la Cruz. 
The company at this theatre was inferior to that 
at the Teatro del Principe, but the young author 
hardly felt himself in a position to protest against 
this decision. Worse luck than this was in store 
for him, for the "apuntador" to whose lot it fell 
to read the parts to the actors was entirely out of 
sympathy with his Romantic imaginings and per- 
formed his task with such ill grace that he convinced 
the actors the presentation of the play was impos- 
sible. One of these, however, Lombia by name, 
predicted that the drama would be brilliantly suc- 
cessful, if well acted and staged. This must have 
been small comfort for the young author, whose 
many disappointments now convinced him that a 
literary career was not the one for him; and he 
resolved to abandon it definitely and to seek his 



12 



The Romantic Dramas of Garcia Gutierrez 

fortune in other fields. He was desperate and ready 
to take up with the first opportunity that offered 
of gaining a livelihood. 

Many a Spanish man of letters had wielded the 
sword as well as the pen. At this moment of com- 
plete discouragement of his youthful hopes, Garcia 
Gutierrez probably had little thought of the example 
of the illustrious company of writers headed by 
Cervantes, but all the same it was the army that 
now claimed him as its own. The Carlist war was 
going merrily on at this time, and the Minister Men- 
dizabal hoped to put an end to it by raising a levy 
of one hundred thousand troops. To make recruiting 
brisker, he offered a Second Lieutenant's commis- 
sion to all volunteers serving six months who had 
had as much as two years' schooling beyond the 
elementary grades. Garcia Gutierrez enlisted, and 
was sent to the recruiting depot in the nearby village 
of Leganes. He had been there but a short time 
when he received news that must have upset him, 
as well as delighted him. Espronceda, it transpired, 
had read El trovador with enthusiasm, and had 
expressed his astonishment that so excellent a play 
had been indefinitely hung up. He was influential 
enough with Grimaldi to secure another trial for 
El trovador, and it was put in rehearsal. The 
comedian Guzman had accepted it for his benefit 
performance — a strange selection surely for a co- 
median, but he was probably better suited for this 
play than the actors accustomed to the pseudo- 



13 



Biographical Sketch 

classic tragedies then holding the boards. The first 
of March, 1836, was the day set for the premiere. 
Word was spread that something new and daring 
was to be presented, and the interest of the theatre- 
going public was thoroughly aroused. Mendiza- 
baPs new recruit unconscionably forgot his military 
duties and made his way to Madrid — absent with- 
out leave from his company at Leganes. 

Ferrer del Rio, who was present at the first per- 
formance, has given us a graphic description of it 
(Galeria de la literatura espanola; quoted by Hart- 
zenbusch, in his Obras escogidas de Garcia Gutie- 
rrez, and also by Regensburger; see bibliography) . 
His account of the occasion reads as follows: 

The night of the 1st of March, 1836, came, and 
not one of the seats in the Teatro del Principe was 
vacant. People kept asking one another who was 
the author of the knightly drama on the bill, and 
no one knew him. When the curtain rose, you might 
have observed a movement of curiosity in all the 
spectators; next, profound attention; after a few 
scenes they were showing their approval, and at the 
end of the first act all were applauding. Their interest 
increased during the acts which followed, and their 
admiration was doubled upon observing the careful 
structure of the plot, the novelty of its peripeteias, 
the unexpectedness of its situations, and the richness 
of its poetry. Not a single scene was considered 
tedious, there was not a single inharmonious phrase 
and not a single idea amiss. When the curtain fell, 
the same honors were achieved by this drama as by 
others; but the ecstatic hand-clapping was succeeded 

14 



The Romantic Dramas of Garcia Gutierrez 

by a new spectacle, a distinction never conferred 
until then on our stage; the audience demanded the 
appearance of the author before the curtain, and 
with such insistence that none would stir from his 
seat until the wish was granted. Don Carlos Lato- 
rre and Dona Conception Rodriguez escorted Gar- 
cia Gutierrez forward, visibly affected by seeing him- 
self the object of such distinguished homage. He 
was in such destitute circumstances that, in order 
to appear before the audience in decent attire, he 
had to borrow a militiaman's coat from a friend 
(Don Ventura de la Vega), who made him this 
hasty loan behind the scenes. 

The next day Madrid talked of nothing but the 
knightly drama; from an early hour on, the box 
office was besieged by serving-men and ticket- 
brokers; even the most careful fathers of families 
promised their children a visit to the theatre, as 
if it had been a comedy of magic; the first edition 
of El trovador was sold in two weeks. Its mellifluous 
verses ran from mouth to mouth; it was performed 
for many evenings, and the author was granted a 
benefit performance. Mendizabal gave him a full 
discharge from the army. 

After this decisive success, Garcia Gutierrez grati- 
fied a filial wish by returning home and describing 
his triumph to his parents — a return far different 
from that of a Prodigal Son. In the South he re- 
mained for four months, utilizing his leisure there 
by beginning the composition of another play of 
the same general style but of less inspiration. This 
was El paje, produced on May 22, 1837. Its re- 
ception seems to have implied somewhat of a succes 

15 



Biographical Sketch 

d'estime; Cayetano Rosell tells us that the public, 
while admiring the beauty of its verse, objected to 
what it considered the immorality of its plot. 

In this same year Garcia Gutierrez produced three 
other plays. The first was El sitio de Bilbao. The 
edition published by Yenes, Madrid, 1837, bears no 
author's name, but simply the title and the de- 
scription " drama de circunstancias en dos actos en 
prosa y verso." Both Hartzenbusch and Cayetano 
Rosell 2 state that it is the work of Garcia Gutierrez 
in collaboration with Isidoro Gil. The other two 
plays of this year were Magdalena and La Pandilla, 
the latter being a translation from Scribe. Approx- 
imately the same rate of production was continued 
for several years. The period from 1838 to 1842 
saw the publication and presentation of fifteen plays, 
of which eight were original and seven were trans- 
lations from the French. Margarita de Borgona, a 
translation of Alexander Dumas' La Tour de Nesle, 
appeared in 1840. 

The next great dramatic success achieved by 
Garcia Gutierrez came in the year 1843 with Simon 
Bocanegra, which was shown on January 17 at the 
Teatro de la Cruz. Cayetano Rosell states (Autores 
dramdticos contetnpordneos, p. 90) that our author 
abandoned the stage from the year 1840 to 1843, 
but the existence of four plays produced within those 
dates furnishes proof to the contrary. These plays 



2 In volumes mentioned in note 1. 
16 



The Romantic Dramas of Garcia Gutierrez 

are El caballero leal, Zaida, Juan de Suavia and El 
premio del vencedor. But these were very mild 
successes as compared with Simon Bocanegra. In 
the case of this last the enthusiasm of the first- 
night audience reached such a pitch that, when the 
author was called out at the close of the performance, 
some of his friends, not content with the usual signs 
of approval, dashed to the stage properties and 
crowned him with the paper crown used for Norma. 
This was the poet's last great success on the stage 
until twenty years later. 

Nevertheless, each year continued to mark the 
production of two or three pieces, some of them 
original and some , translations. Notwithstanding 
this rather large output, the author's pecuniary re- 
muneration seems to have been small. Writing for 
the Spanish stage had, indeed, never been an 
especially lucrative occupation. In 1849 a law was 
passed which attempted to standardize and define 
the rights of authors and managers. 3 Some of its 
paragraphs are worthy of being cited. 

The Regulations Governing the Teatro Espanol, 
of February 7, 1849, read in part as follows: 

Article 10: "The author of a new play in three 
or more acts will receive from the Teatro Espanol, 
during the period designated by the law concerning 
literary ownership, ten per cent, of the gross receipts 
of each performance, including subscription tickets. 



3 Published with Los millonarios by Don Antonio Garcia 
Gutierrez, Madrid, 1851. 



1 7 



Biographical ' Sketch 

This shall be three per cent, if the work has one 
or two acts." 

Art. 11: "Verse translations will receive half of 
the percentage designated for original plays, and 
translations in prose one fourth." 

Art. 13: "For the first three performances of a 
new play, the author, translator or adapter will 
receive twice the normal per cent." 

It must be observed that these stipulations apply 
to the Teatro Espanol, which appears to have been 
more liberal than the other theatres. 

Article 59 of the Decree of February 7, 1849, 
Governing the Theatres of the Kingdom, reads: 

"The author of a dramatic composition shall have 
a right to ..... a definite per cent, of the gross 
receipts of each performance, including subscription 
tickets. The maximum shall be the per cent, paid 
by the Teatro Espanol, and the minimum one half 
as much." 

Art. 60: "Authors shall have a right to occupy 
free of charge on the night of the premiere of their 
plays a box or six first class seats, and shall have 
a right to occupy one seat free of charge at each 
successive performance." 

However, these regulations had not come into 
force until thirteen years after the performance of 
El trovador, and they were by no means as liberal 
as they might seem to the present-day reader, be- 
cause the theatre-going public in Madrid was not 
large enough to warrant more than a few perfor- 
mances of even the must successful plays. The 
longest run secured by any of Garcia Gutierrez's 



18 



The Romantic Dramas of Garcia Gutierrez 

plays was that of his Venganza catalana, in 1864, 
which continued for fifty-six nights. 4 It may be 
readily understood, then, why the author should 
have grown discouraged in 1844 and have resolved 
to seek his fortune elsewhere. Like so many 
Spaniards before him, he decided to try the New 
World. Accordingly he embarked for Cuba, where 
he engaged in newspaper work in Havana. His 
position was an obscure one on the staff of the 
Gaceta Oficial which Pineyro (El romanticismo en 
Espana, p. 107) calls the least literary publication 
in Havana. After a time he moved to Mexico, having 
a narrow escape from shipwreck on the way, and 
resided principally in Merida de Yucatan. In these 
years he produced a few plays, in addition to a long 
poem entitled La conquista de Nueva Espana, deal- 
ing with the exploits of Hernan Cortes. 

After an absence from home of five years, he 
returned to his native country no better off in 
fortune than when he left it. Official notice was 
beginning to be taken of his worth, however, and 
in 1855 he was appointed President of the Spanish 
Financial Commission in London. He was in that 
city when he received the news that his brother's 
house in Seville had been burned, and that his above- 
mentioned poem La conquista de Nueva Espana and 
a drama, entitled Roger de Flor which had engaged 
him for some time while in America, had both been 



4 Cf. Obras escogidas de D. Antonio Garcia Gutierrez, pre- 
face, p. v. 



19 



Biographical Sketch 

consumed in the conflagration. In 1857 he gave 
up his post in London and returned to Madrid to 
take up again his literary tasks. Comedies and 
light operas (zarzuelas) were interspersed among 
his more serious pieces; his best known zarzuela 
is El grumete, which, with music by Emilio Arrieta, 
was played at the teatro del Circo in 1853. He 
also continued to translate and adapt plays from 
the French stage. 

In the year 1860 he produced an adaptation of 
Lessing's Emilia Galotti under the title of Un due- 
lo a muerte, which so able a critic as Pineyro con- 
sidered by no means an improvement on the original 
and which did not enjoy a very great measure of 
success. 5 

It is not infrequent that authors in their maturer 
years return to the more extravagant vein of their 
youth and win success thereby. Precisely this hap- 
pened to Garcia Gutierrez in the year 1864. The 
theme of his lost drama Roger de Flor, dealing with 
the expedition of that chieftain and his Catalan 
compatriots in the Orient from 1302 to 1311, con- 
tinued to attract him, and on it he constructed a 
new play, giving to it the title of Venganza catalana. 
It was presented at the Teatro del Principe on 
February 4, 1864 and achieved great success, run- 
ning, as has been stated, fifty-six nights. This was 
his last great play; those following show a marked 



5 Cf . El romanticismo en Espana por Enrique Pineyro ; 
Paris, Gamier, 1904. pp. 108-109. 



20 



The Romantic Dramas of Garcia Gutierrez 

decline in creative power and poetic inspiration, 
though he continued to write for twenty years longer. 
In his later years a number of honors came to 
Garcia Gutierrez. He took his seat in the Spanish 
Academy in 1862. Various medals were bestowed 
on him. He wore the Great Cross of the order of 
Charles III, of that of Maria Victoria, of Isabel la 
Catolica, and of the Conception de Villaviciosa of 
Portugal. In 1868 he was appointed Spanish Consul 
at Bayonne, and the next year at Genoa. From 1872 
onward he was Director of the Archaeological 
Museum of Madrid. His death occurred on August 
26, 1884. 



21 



CHAPTER II. 

The Advent of the Romantic Drama 
in Spain. 

The Romantic movement in Spain, as in other 
lands, arose as a protest against a period of literary 
rigidity immediately preceding it. If its triumph in 
Spain seemed more rapid than elsewhere, this was 
due in large part to political conditions; and the 
movement, once started, exhibited much the same 
features as in France. Yet there are certain special 
conditions in the literature of Eighteenth Century 
Spain which are worthy of consideration. 

The whole period from the end of the Siglo de 
Oro through the first third of the Nineteenth 
Century was a singularly barren or £. The sources 
of inspiration which fed the tremendous vitality of 
the Golden Era in Spanish letters seemed to dry 
up, and no fresh Renaissance arrived bringing with 
it renewed inspiration. The principles on which the 
Spanish comedia was based were broad and liberal, 
with a tendency toward excessive freedom and exag- 
geration; after Calderon, there was no possible 



23 



The Advent of the Romantic Drama in Spain 

further development of these principles except along 
the line of further exaggeration. Calderon's less 
inspired imitators drove their vessel on the rocks 
with their extravagant plots and their euphuistic 
and bombastic verbiage. Those who hoped to reform 
the theatre by applying to it a set of strict rules 
and precepts based mainly on French models were 
unfortunate in being unable to write acceptably 
according to their vaunted principles. The younger 
Moratin was the one bright star in their constel- 
lation, but he came late in the Eighteenth Century, 
wrote comparatively few plays, and had no numerous 
following. 

The Eighteenth Century was one of learning 
rather than of imagination. It was this century that 
marked the foundation of the Spanish National Libra- 
ry (1711), the Royal Spanish Academy (1714), the 
publication of the Diccionario de Autoridades 
(1726-1739) and the foundation of the Academy 
of History (1738). Enrique Florez himself wrote 
most of the monumental Espana Sagrada, of which 
the publication was begun in 1754; in 1800-1805 
the philologist Hervas published a Catdlogo de las 
lenguas de las naciones conocidas containing the 
names of more than 800 languages; Masdeu pub- 
lished a twenty-volume Historia critica de Espana 
in 1783-1800. Many works were devoted to the 
discussion of the rules of poetry and the drama. In 
a word, the critical rather than the creative spirit 
was the dominant one. 



24 



The Romantic Dramas of Garcia Gutierrez 

In general this spirit of criticism championed the 
dramatic canons of Seventeenth Century France as 
against the freedom of the Golden Era in Spain. 
One would naturally think that the accession of 
Louis XIV's grandson as Philip V of Spain, in ac- 
cordance with the provisions of the Treaty of 
Utrecht (1713), had much to do with this turning 
toward France, but the coming of the Bourbon 
dynasty was by no means the sole cause. Menen- 
dez y Pelayo says: 6 

"It may be affirmed without fear of seeming 
paradoxical that the change of dynasty was not 
the event which most efficiently brought about the 
change in our literary customs and tastes which 
took place during the (Eighteenth) century, and 
that the same change would have been realized 
sooner or later, with greater or less intensity, even 
if the dynasty of Austria or any other than the 
French had prevailed in Spain." 

The eminent critic goes on to comment on the 
influence of French literature in Eighteenth Century 
England, Germany and Italy, and refers to Spain 
in these words: 

"We Spaniards need not be ashamed, therefore, 
of having received, perhaps in less degree than other 
nations, an influence which, in the state of prostra- 
tion and depression existing in our literature, could 
not fail to be beneficial, and which, moreover, came 



6 Historia de las ideas esteticas en Espana, ed. 1886, tomo 
III, p. 287. 

25 



The Advent of the Romantic Drama in Spain 

as a recompense for the influence which we had 
exercised in France from the second half of the 
Sixteenth Century up to the second half of the 
Seventeenth." 

Moreover this study of French literature in Spain 
in the Eighteenth Century was not something that 
began overnight; it had its roots in the Seventeenth 
Century. Lope de Vega praises Ronsard; 7 Quevedo 
translated St. Frangois de Sales' Introduction a la 
vie devote, and often quotes Montaigne, of whose 
essays there was a Spanish translation in the Seven- 
teenth Century. Diamante adapted Corneille's Le 
Cid under the title of El honrador de su padre. 
El labrador gentilhombre, an imitation of Le bour- 
geois gentilhombre, was played at the Retiro on 
March 3, 1680. Mile. De Scudery's Artamene, ou 
le Grand Cyrus, was translated into Spanish in the 
time of Charles II. The Spanish theatre, with which 
we are more particularly concerned, continued the 
tradition of the Seventeenth Century in the first 
part of the Eighteenth, but mainly through exag- 
gerated imitations and adaptations by such men as 
Zamora, Fernandez de Leon and Caiiizares. Za- 
mora and Canizares also wrote comedies called "co- 
medias de figuron (caricatures) ; Menendez y Pe- 
layo tells us (op. cit., p. 297) that, though these 
works were of native inspiration, they bore suf- 
ficient resemblance to the plays of the school of 



Menendez y Pelayo, op. cit., p. 293. 
26 



The Romantic Dramas of Garcia Gutierrez 

Moliere to save them from the condemnation of the 
Francophile critics as well as from the general pro- 
scription which fell on the Spanish "ancient and 
marvellous theatre." 

Throughout the Eighteenth Century there was a 
current of national literary taste in Spain which 
opposed the strict trans- Pyrenean standards, but this 
opposition had to struggle hard to assert itself. The 
old Spanish freedom and exuberance began to be 
fettered by artificial literary rules and regulations, 
and the upholders of French models did their utmost 
to establish their system. Luzan, Montiano, Nasa- 
rre, Garcia de la Huerta, Jovellanos and the Mo- 
ratins in general condemned the freedom of the 
Spanish theatre in the Siglo de Oro and endeavored 
to establish in Spain the neo-classic doctrines of 
Boileau and Le Bossu. They admitted that some of 
the plays of the Golden Era had merit, but implied 
that they would have been very much better if 
Lope and his fellow-dramatists had strictly observed 
the unities. The more violent followers of Luzan 
had only harsh words for the older theatre of Spain. 
Bias Antonio Nasarre, for example, considered Cal- 
deron's autos as comic interpretations of the Holy 
Scriptures, and referred to Lope as the "odioso he- 
resiarca o corruptor de la dramatica espanola." 

At all times, however, there were some who de- 
fended Spain's past literary glories and who opposed 
the invasion of French taste. Padre Feijoo believed 
that a poet should write according to his own genius 



27 



The Advent of the Romantic Drama in Spain 

and not be bound by a set of fixed rules. Zavaleta 
wrote a reply to Nasarre in which he stoutly main- 
tained the worth of the old Spanish national theatre. 
The earlier numbers of the Diario de los literatos 
de Espana (1737-1742) were decidedly favorable to 
the dramatists of the Siglo de Oro. The discussion 
continued up to the time of the triumph of the 
Romantic movement. On the whole the supporters 
of French taste had rather the better of it as far as 
the cultured class was concerned; plays of the school 
of Lope remained in favor with the people. A full 
account of this contest is given by Menendez y Pe- 
layo, Historia de las ideas esteticas en Espana, 
Siglo XVIII. 

While these discussions about the Spanish theatre 
were going on, what was actually happening on the 
Spanish stage? Men like Luzan and his compeers 
wished to reform the theatre from above, but the 
Spanish stage has ever responded to popular rather 
than to academic inspiration. This popular tradition 
continued all through the Eighteenth Century and 
was fanned into flame by the Romantic movement 
in the Nineteenth. It will be well to take a brief 
glance at the Eighteenth Century theatre, for it will 
show that, while public taste may not have been 
admirable, it at least opposed the imposition of 
standards foreign to the tradition of Lope and 
Calderon, and showed great appreciation for play- 
wrights as distinctly native in inspiration and flavor 
as Ramon de la Cruz. 

23 



The Romantic Dramas of Garcia Gutierrez 

First of all, the plays of the Golden Era never 
ceased entirely to be represented; they have always 
held the boards to a greater or less degree from 
the time of Lope de Vega to the present day. 
Moreover, thsxn admirers continued to write plays 
in imitation of theirs, and these plays succeeded 
with the populace. Unfortunately these imitators 
were not men of remarkable genius, and the worth 
of their productions was comparatively not large. 
By the time of the death of Charles II the Spanish 
theatre had reached a very low ebb. The causes 
of this decline are not far to seek, for the decadence 
of Spain in literature paralleled its decline in all 
other lines. The force of the Renaissance had spent 
itself and no external influence came to replace it. 
The course of Spanish poetry was circumscribed, 
and no further variation was possible within that 
course; hence, if there was a dearth of genius the 
plays of the same sort which continued to be written 
necessarily showed a lack of originality and fresh- 
ness. The drama in the latter part of the Siglo de 
Oro tended toward more and ever more exaggeration; 
imitation of this spirit could, in the hands of second- 
rate writers, be nothing but further and wilder exag- 
geration. In the Siglo de Oro, poets spoke to a 
people united spiritually as well as politically; men 
of high and low estate had the same religion, the 
same politics, and much the same aspirations. After 
1713 the house of Bourbon was at the head of the 
government, and men of higher culture began to 



29 



The Advent of the Romantic Drama in Spain 

espouse French literary principles; there was a 
struggle, as we have related above, between those 
who wished to maintain the old traditions and 
those who wished to impose strict literary standards 
such as those of Seventeenth Century France. The 
traditionalists had rather the better of it in the 
first half of the century, before the French move- 
ment had gained sufficient momentum; and the 
Gallicists thereafter. 

The best followers of the old school were Cani- 
zares and Zamora. Jose de Canizares (1676-1750) 
is famous for his adaptations of the works of Lope, 
to whom he owes his best piece, El domine Lucas. 
Of his eighty-odd published comedies the majority 
belong to this style; he also wrote a few, such as 
El sacrificio de Iftgenia, which were modeled on the 
French school. His contemporary, Antonio de Za- 
mora, declared that his main effort was to follow 
in the footsteps of Calderon. He succeeded in imi- 
tating the form but not the spirit of his master. In 
addition to these two there were numbers of men 
of less inspiration who filled the stage with their 
wildly exaggerated extravagances, abounding in all 
the melodramatic paraphernalia of shipwrecks, duels, 
disguises, miraculous appearances of Saints and ex- 
traordinary adventures of all sorts, mixed together 
to form a faint resemblance to a plot. 

In view of this degeneration of the popular stage, 
it was natural that there should be endeavors to 
improve its tone. Such were the efforts made by 



30 



The Romantic Dramas of Garcia Gutierrez 

the writers of Poetics whom we have mentioned, 
e. g., Luzan, Montiano, Nasarre. To the success 
of the efforts of most of them, there were two very 
serious hindrances. The first was, that instead of 
reforming the Spanish theatre according to its own 
tradition, they endeavored to impose on it a set of 
foreign rules; and the second, that they were unable 
to write plays themselves which were of sufficient 
value to make their example count. Montiano 's Vir- 
ginia, Atauljo, N. F. de Moratin's Petirnetra, Hor- 
mesinda, Jose Cadalso's Sancho Garcia and the like, 
were not of a nature to serve as models. Attempts 
were made also to adapt the old Spanish masters 
to the new rules, notably by Candido Maria Trigue- 
ros, who adapted Lope's La Estrella de Sevilla and 
El anzuelo de Fenisa, and by Sebastian y Latre, who 
adapted Rojas' Progne y Filomela and More to 's El 
parecido en la corte. 8 The public's affection for the 
older dramatists was so great that they forced the 
actors to repeat El parecido en la corte next day in 
its original form. 

In the middle and latter part of the century there 
were many who followed the example of Canizares 
and Zamora; their productions found favor with the 
populace, but were of such slight value that they 
have not survived. Such men were Moncin, Valla- 
dares, Cornelia, and Zavala y Zamora, all of them 



8 Historia de la literatura y del arte dramdtico en Espana, 
por Adolfo Federico Conde de Schack. Tr. por Eduardo de Mier. 
Madrid, 1887. Vol. V, p. 333. 



31 



The Advent of the Romantic Drama in Spain 

the sort of authors whom Moratin satirized in his 
Comedia nueva. 

The only follower of the old tradition whose works 
have received general commendation was Ramon de 
la Cruz (1731-1794). Continuing the tradition of 
the old pasos (curtain-raisers) and entremeses (in- 
terludes) he wrote sainetes (farces) full of life, vigor 
and color, without literary pretensions but admir- 
ably portraying all phases of the life of the lower 
social strata of Madrid. The few works in which 
he followed French models are forgotten. He not 
infrequently took occasion to poke fun at his serious 
rule-bound contemporaries. His field was narrow, 
but he is the best representative of the gay, spon- 
taneous, exuberant native wit which Lope and his 
school possessed and which the Eighteenth Century 
classicists so sadly lacked. 

The man best able to reform the Spanish theatre 
was one who did actually undertake the task and 
who devoted much energy to it: Leandro Fernandez 
de Moratin. He is the outstanding dramatic genius 
of his century, who might have brought about at 
least a temporary reform if he could have produced 
enough plays to exemplify his principles; but his 
output was small, and he had no successors who 
persisted in his methods. His Comedia nueva (Feb. 
7, 1792) satirizes violently the playwrights of his 
time, but it did not destroy the objects of its attack, 
who were too numerous and fecund. The play is not 
a satire of the plays of Caiiizares and Zamora, nor 



32 



The Romantic Dramas of Garcia Gutierrez 

of Ramon de La Cruz, but of their wild contem- 
poraries. Moratin seems particularly distressed that 
foreigners may judge Spain by the mad plays which 
he satirizes; witness the speech of Don Pedro in 
Act I, scene 3: "And this stuff is played in a 
cultured nation? And this is printed, for foreigners 
to make sport of us?" Moratin's opinion of the 
plays he attacks may be divined from what Don 
Pedro says of the work of the poetaster Don Eleu- 
terio (Act II, sc. 7): 

"Es increible. Ahi no hay mas que un hacina- 
miento confuso de especies, una action informe, 
lances inverosimiles, episodios inconexos, caracteres 
mal expresados, o mal escogidos; en vez de artificio, 
embrollo; en vez de situaciones comicas, mamarra- 
chadas de linterna magica. No hay conocimiento 
de historia, ni de costumbres; no hay objeto moral, 
no hay lenguaje, ni estilo, ni versification, ni gusto, 
ni sentido comun." 

Yet no one style of play held the stage to the 
exclusion of others. One day there might be a drama 
of Lope or Calderon; the next, an opera (the opera 
came into vogue through Isabel Farnese, second 
queen of Philip V) ; the next, a comedy of Moliere, 
Regnard or Goldoni; and then a play by Cornelia, 
Moncin or Valladares. 

The conflict of the church with the theatre in 
the Eighteenth Century is an interesting phase of 
literary history too long to be entered into here. 
Suffice it to say that the theatres were closed in 



33 



The Advent of the Romantic Drama in Spain 

the provinces at various times all through the cen- 
tury, and Ferdinand VI issued very strict regulations 
against the theatre, — which were never strictly ap- 
plied. The Inquisition issued a list of nearly six 
hundred plays whose performance was forbidden, 
and in it was included Calderon's La vida es sueno, 
El tejedor de Segovia, and many others of the best 
dramas of the old school. It has been suggested 
that this ostracism of the old masters was due to 
the influence of those who supported the French 
doctrines and who tried by this means to promote 
their own cause. 9 

The total dramatic activity in the Eighteenth 
Century was much less than in the Seventeenth or 
Nineteenth. The younger Moratin published a list 
of authors and plays of the Eighteenth Century in 
the preface to his Comedia nueva. 10 He mentions 
a hundred and seventy six authors and about four- 
teen hundred plays of all sorts which were either 
represented or printed between 1700 and 1825. This 
number seems quite small as compared with the list 
published by J. E. Hartzenbush 11 of more than five 
hundred authors of plays between 1836 and 1866. 

The early years of the Nineteenth Century, mark- 



9 Cf. Ticknor, Hist, of Span. Lit., New York, Harpers, 
1854 ; vol. Ill, chap. vii. 

10 Cf. Comedias de D. Leandro Fernandez de Moratin, con 
el prologo y las noticias de la Real Acamedia de la Historia. 
Paris, Baudry, 1838. Pp. xxiii-xxxi. 

11 Cf. Obras escogidas de D. Antonio Garcia Gutierrez, Ma- 
drid, 1866. Pp. xvii-xx. 



34 



The Romantic Dramas of Garcia Gutierrez 

ing the Spanish struggle (1808-1813) to throw off 
the French political yoke, were hardly propitious to 
literature of any sort. The classicists exerted the 
most powerful influence. Moratin continued to 
preach by precept and example. His adaptation of 
Moliere's Uecole des maris (La escuela de los ma- 
ridos) was produced at Madrid in 1812, and his 
adaptation of Le medecin malgre lui {El medico a 
palos) in 1814. Quintana was a pronounced clas- 
sicist. We have already mentioned the neo-classical 
dramas of Martinez de la Rosa and the Duke of 
Rivas. Jovellanos' neo-classical piece Pelayo (writ- 
ten about 1769 but played for the first time under 
the title of Manuza in 1792) was not especially suc- 
cessful, but his play El delincuente hour ado (1773), 
based not on classical principles but on Diderot, was 
one of the greatest successes of the century. 

The romantic movement in Spanish, as elsewhere, 
was a protest against strict classicism, a return to 
liberalism and individualism in literature. The out- 
ward manifestations were much the same in Spain 
as in France; but the relations of the Romantic 
theatres in the two countries with the theatres of 
their past periods of great splendor were quite dif- 
ferent. The Romantic dramatists of France claimed 
to be opposed to the principles of the Seventeenth 
Century, for the French classic theatre was com- 
paratively strict in its observance of a definite set 
of rules. The drama of the Siglo de Oro in Spain 
was much more untrammeled; very free in subject- 



35 



The Advent of the Romantic Drama in Spain 

matter and treatment, varied in form and very 
little bound by rules. It was popular rather than 
academic, exuberant rather than restrained. Ob- 
viously the Spanish Romantic dramatists were closer 
in spirit and in performance to Lope and Calderon 
than were Victor Hugo, Dumas pere, Alfred de 
Vigny and the others to Corneille and Racine. The 
attitude of most of the Eighteenth Century clas- 
sicists in opposing the older Spanish theatre was 
logical, for the systems of France and Spain were 
quite opposed to each other. 

We have endeavored to point out the condem- 
nation that was pronounced in the Eighteenth Cen- 
tury on the older Spanish theatre because of its 
disregard of the unities. When the French Roman- 
ticists made such an uproar about the unities, they 
were commending the old Spanish freedom in that 
particular; when Victor Hugo in his famous preface 
to Cromwell, raged against the unities of time and 
place, saying that the unity of action was the only 
one tenable, he was simply confirming the principles 
and practices of the school of Lope, whose plays 
suffer so sadly when judged by the strict standards 
of Boileau. Lope observed the unities of time and 
place only when it seemed quite plausible to do so. 
The disregard of these unities, as urged by Victor 
Hugo, was in Spain only a return to traditional 
practice. 

Pierre Nebout, in his study Le drame romantique 
(Paris, 1895) defines Romanticism as a "return to 



36 



The Romantic Dramas of Garcia Gutierrez 

lyricism." Here again the older Spanish and the 
Romantic theatres are more closely akin, for the 
classic theatre of France contained a smaller lyric 
element than that of Spain. 

These are not the only respects, however, in which 
the Spanish Romantic theatre was closer to the 
theatre of the Golden Era than the French Romantic 
theatre to that of Corneille and Racine. The French 
Romanticists, with Victor Hugo at their head, en- 
deavored to oppose as far as possible what had gone 
before them in the Classic Age. Lanson 12 says: 

"Au theatre, comme partout, le romantisme se 
determine d'abord par opposition au gout classique; 
le premier article de la doctrine est de prendre le 
contre-pied de ce qu'on faisait avant." 

One of the most conspicuous points of this op- 
position to classic practice was the abandonment of 
distinct dramatic genres in favor of a mixed form 
containing both tragedy and comedy. "The grotesque 
and the sublime" must be mingled, says Victor Hugo 
in his preface to Cromwell. 13 

"Car la poesie vraie, la poesie complete est dans 
Tharmonie des contrastes — tout ce qui est dans la 
nature est dans 1'art." 

This mixing of tragedy and comedy was common 



12 Histoire de la litterature frangaise, 6e partie, Livre II, 
Chap. iv. 

18 P. £5 of the edition of Hernani and Cromwell by the 
Imprimerie Nationale. 



37 



The Advent of the Romantic Drama in Spain 

enough in the French drama of the Middle Ages 
and in the plays of Hardy and his contemporaries 
in the first years of the Seventeenth Century, and 
Lanson points out that this mingling of genres had 
been seen in the Eighteenth Century, in a different 
sort of drama, in the works of Diderot and Beau- 
marchais. Nevertheless the system in vogue from 
1640 until the Romantic Movement, was strongly 
opposed in general to this admixture, and the classic 
ideal had become a national one which lasted for 
more than two and a half centuries. Such an ad- 
mixture of comic and tragic elements was quite 
usual in the older Spanish theatre, however, and 
was never quite superseded by the Eighteenth Cen- 
tury classical system. When the plays of Lope, for 
example, were "adapted" by classicists like Trigue- 
ros, the roles of the graciosos were suppressed. Victor 
Hugo was by no means the originator of the idea 
that, since life is a succession of small tragedies and 
comedies, the drama should take this into account; 
the older Spanish and English theatres had practised 
the principle long before his time. 

The French Romantic plays, in practice even more 
than in theory, contained a much larger melodra- 
matic element than the classic drama. Some of the 
Romantic plays, such as Hugo's Lucrece Borgia, 
Marie Tudor, Le roi s y amuse, and many of the elder 
Dumas', such as La Tour de Nesle, Henri III et sa 
cour, are melodramas pure and simple. 

The interest depends on a rapid succession of 



38 



The Romantic Dramas of Garcia Gutierrez 

stirring events and not on a study of character or 
passion. The Spanish Romantic and the Spanish 
classic theatres were closely akin in this respect. 
The Spanish plays of the Siglo de Oro were much 
more episodical in character, much more diffuse and 
prodigal of action that the French plays of the 
Seventeenth Century. Take for example Guillen de 
Castro's Las mocedades del Cid or Lope's El reme- 
dio en la desdicha, or Calderon's El tejedor de Se- 
govia, or Tirso's El burlador de Sevilla. 

The older Spanish plays were more Romantic in 
their tendencies also on account of the greater de- 
velopment of their characteis as individuals. The 
Cid of Guillen de Castro's play is an individual and 
not a type like Corneille's Cid; the Spanish come- 
dias are not studies of the human will or of its 
conflict with passion. Calderon's mayor of Zalamea 
is an individual figure; the heroes of Lope's Fuente- 
ovejuna are sturdy individuals fighting for their 
rights. 

In the matter of versification the Spanish theatre 
has ever been freer than the French. Hugo states 
in his preface to Cromwell that verse is a visible 
form of thought, which is obvious enough, and 
continues: 

"Nous voudrions un vers libre, franc, loyal, osant 
tout dire sans pruderie, tout exprimer sans recher- 
che. . . plus ami de l'enjambement qui 1 'allonge que 
de l'inversion qui l'embrouille; fidele a la rime, cette 
esclave reine, cette supreme grace de notre poesie, 

39 



The Advent of the Romantic Drama in Spain 

ce generateur de tout metre. . . II nous semble que 
ce vers-la serait aussi beau que la prose." 

It is not for us to explain the last curious state- 
ment; at any rate the manifesto contains nothing 
contrary to the rules and practice of Lope de Vega, 
to whom it would have seemed illiberal rather than 
over-bold. Hugo was satisfied to use only the Alex- 
andrine in his plays, even if he did make it more 
flexible, but from the earliest times the Spanish 
dramatists had had a considerable number of metres 
at their disposal. Lope's counsels are often quoted: 
use decimas for sad passages, he says; the sonnet 
for suspense; romances, which may be used in 
octaves, for narration; tercets for graver episodes; 
and the redondilla for love passages. As for the 
enjambement, there was never anything shocking 
about it in Spain, where it was a commonplace. 
Some of the syllables of the same word, even, might 
stand at the end of one line and the rest of the 
word at the beginning of the next line. Cf. Calde- 
ron's La nina de Gomez Arias: 

Pues <;que cosa hay mas imper- 
Tinente que la pobreza? 14 

The general characteristics of the Romantic 
theatres of France and Spain were substantially the 
same; both had the same virtues and the same 
defects. Both marked a return to lyricism in the 



41 Quoted by G. Huszar, L'infliwnce de VEspagne sur le 
theatre frangais des XVIII et XIXe siecles. Paris, 1912. 



40 



The Romantic Dramas of Garcia Gutierrez 

drama, and both present the passions and strivings 
of the individual as shown by a series of episodes; 
they treat of the individual and not of the general. 
Both are liable to the same melodramatic excesses, 
to the same exaggeration of Romantic passion. Both 
are interested more in the action for itself than in 
the psychological analysis of motives. Both go 
mainly to the Middle Ages for their background, 
throwing over it a colorful glamour under the guise 
of historical verity. 

We have already mentioned Padre Feijoo's doc- 
trine that poets should develop their own genius in 
their own way. As we consider the immediate pre- 
cursors of Romanticism in Spain we find much the 
same doctrine in the works of Dionisio Solis. Solis 
is generally regarded as a classicist, but certain of 
his ideas are extremely liberal and coincide with 
those later emphasized by the Romanticists. Pre- 
ceding his translation of Alfieri's Orestes (1807) 
there is a prologue which amounts almost to a 
Romantic manifesto. He begins by stating that the 
French and Italians tried to put limits on the arts, 
"usque quo et non amplius," and that they some- 
times appeared to think that the worth of a play- 
was in proportion to its adherence to a set of rules. 
Such a restriction as this Solis thinks must lead to 
a checking of genius and ultimately to barrenness, 
for he believes that all rules should be modified to 
suit the customs, ideas, character, climate and oc- 
cupations of the various nations. 



41 



The Advent of the Romantic Drama in Spain 

The most vigorous defender of Spain's ancient 
glories and promulgator of Romantic ideas was not 
a Spaniard, but a German. Coming to Cadiz as 
consul in the second decade of the Nineteenth Cen- 
tury, Bohl de Faber brought with him the doctrines 
of William Schlegel and began to spread them. 
William Schlegel had given his course in dramatic 
literature in Vienna in 1808, and in it had lauded 
to the skies the genius of Calderon and the older 
Spanish theatre in general. His knowledge of the 
objects of his praise is said by Menendez y Pelayo 
to have been very superficial, 15 but he undoubtedly 
helped to bring the masters of the Siglo de Oro back 
into general esteem. Bohl de Faber had a five year 
controversy (1814-1819) with Jose Joaquin de Mo- 
ra, a representative of the classicists. The former 
wrote in the Diario mercantil of Cadiz, the latter in 
the Cronica cientifica y literaria of Madrid. Similar- 
ly liberal ideas were championed in the journal El 
Europeo, founded at Barcelona in 1823. 

The individual and sentimental literature of 
France, Germany and England had already begun 
to penetrate Spain. An arrangement of Goethe's 
Wert her was published as early as 1797 by Jose 
Mor de Fuentes; Chateaubriand's A tola appeared 
in translation in 1803; Bernardin de St. Pierre's 
Paul et Virginie in 1818, the year which marked 
the publication of a series of translations of French, 



15 Op. ciU vol. VII, pp. 211-214. 
42 



The Romantic Dramas of Garcia Gutierrez 

English and German modern novels by Cabrerizo at 
Valencia. But the number of translations is not as 
important as the fact that the educated class read 
the new Romantic literature as it appeared in 
France, and in French translations of English and 
German works. This naturally helped to wean 
educated Spaniards from neo-classical tastes, and 
made them better prepared for the Romantic plays 
when they appeared on the stage. 

Not a few of those who afterwards became leaders 
in the Spanish Romantic movement had all too 
good an opportunity to familiarize themselves with 
what was going on abroad, for they spent various 
periods in exile. The Duke of Rivas spent his exile 
(1823-1834) in England, Malta, Italy and France. 
Espronceda spent long periods in England and 
France. Martinez de la Rosa passed eight years 
in Paris. Larra received his early education in 
France, as did Gil y Zarate. These men and lesser 
lights were permitted to return after the death of 
Ferdinand VII in 1833, and the triumph of Roman- 
ticism followed promptly. 

The young men who were left in Madrid formed 
in the year 1830 a sort of Cenacle of their own at 
the Cafe del Principe, calling themselves "El Par- 
nasillo." ie They were of course friendly to new 
ideas, and their number included many of the 
standard-bearers of the Romantic movement. Among 



| 16 A full account of the "Parnasillo" is given by Mesonero 
Romanos, Memorias de un setentdn, Madrid, 1880. Chap. XXI. 



43 



The Advent of the Romantic Drama in Spain 

them were Ventura de la Vega, Escosura, Gil y 

Zarate, Breton de los Herreros, Larra, Grimaldi, 
afterwards reinforced by Espronceda, Hartzenbusch, 
Garcia Gutierrez, Zorrilla and many others. 

None of the above authors themselves produced 
Romantic dramas up to the year 1835, but the 
Spanish stage began to exhibit many works of Ro- 
mantic tendencies coming from France. These were, 
first, importations from the Porte-Saint-Martin in 
Paris, of the melodramatic predecessors of the Ro- 
mantic dramatists of France, such as Caigniez, 
Ducange and Pixerecourt. Le faux Stanislas, Edouard 
en Ecosse on la nnit d'un proscrit, Les mines de 
Pologne, Le chien de Montargis, Les mines de 
Babylone and La pie voleuse were all played in Ma- 
drid before 1825. Atald o los amores de dos salvajes 
was produced about 1830, the year in which Breton 
adapted Ducange's Le couvent de Tonnington. La- 
rra translated the Robert Dillon of Ducange in 1832. 

It is a strange occurrence that the first Romantic 
drama written by a native Spanish author was 
produced by a man of such strictly neo-classical 
beginnings as Martinez de la Rosa. He was in 
Paris in the late twenties, and was young and im- 
pressionable enough to become a convert to the new 
dramatic school, and to write two dramas in the 
Romantic style, A ben Humeya and La conjuration 
de Venecia. Aben Humeya was written in French 
and presented with some success at the Porte-Saint- 
Martin in 1830. In the preface to the play, Mar- 



44 



The Romantic Dramas of Garcia Gutierrez 

tinez speaks of the desirability of historical accuracy, 
of local color and of a style full of imagery — a 
very mild Romantic manifesto, for the author was 
ever on the side of moderation. Aben Humeya takes 
as its subject the revolt of the Moors under Philip II. 
In the first scenes we learn that Aben Humeya, a 
descendant of Mahomet, and a man of mild charac- 
ter, is goaded by continual oppression on the part 
of the Spanish monarch to plan a revolt. He dis- 
covers that his wife's father had reached a secret 
agreement with the envoy of the Castilian Captain- 
General; he therefore forces his father-in-law to 
drink poison. But Aben's personal enemies start a 
revolt against him; they succeed in killing him just 
as his wife rushes in, crying, "My father! What 
have you done to my father?" The drama is in 
three acts and in prose; the unities of time and 
place are not strictly observed. 

When Martinez reached his native country, he 
decided to try there a drama in the new fashion, 
and his Conjuration de Venecia had its premiere 
in Madrid on April 23, 1834. Like Aben Hu- 
meya, it is written entirely in prose, but there are 
five acts instead of three. The unity of time is not 
observed, for the action involves four days; the 
unity of place is recognized to the extent that the 
entire action takes place in Venice. Rugiero, an un- 
known adventurer, is planning a bloodless revolution 
against the Doge of Venice, Pedro Morosini. Rugiero 
is secretedly wedded to Laura, daughter of Pedro's 



45 



The Advent of the Romantic Drama in Spain 

brother Juan. Rugiero, in an interview at night in 
a cemetery, is telling his wife of his plans against 
her uncle, when Pedro Morosini and his agents seize 
him ; they have overheard all his plots. At the trial 
it is revealed that Pedro Morosini, who presides as 
Doge, is Rugiero's father. Morosini faints, Rugiero 
is condemned and not even allowed to see his father 
before being executed. 

Here is a drama, then, quite after the manner 
of the French Romantic dramatists. The melodra- 
matic element is very conspicuous, and the rest of 
the Romantic appurtenances are all there. 

Five months after the appearance of La conjura- 
tion de Venecia Larra produced a drama which was 
much more violently Romantic. This play, Macias, 
is a good example of the close relation between the 
Spanish classic theatre and the Romantic, for the 
story of the unfortunate Macias was treated by 
Lope in his Porfiar hast a morir, printed in 1638. 
The play will be considered in some detail when 
we come to treat it in connection with El trovador 
in the next chapter. Suffice it to say that Larra 
endeavors to put into practice all the canons of the 
Romantic drama in France, though he modestly says 
in his preface (for, like Hugo and Dumas, he issues 
a sort of manifesto in his prefaces) : 

"This is a sort of dramatic composition to which 
it would be difficult to give a name. It is not a 
play after the manner of Lope or Calderon; not a 
Classic play; not a Greek tragedy. . . Is it a pale 

46 



The Romantic Dramas of Garcia Gutierrez 

reflection of the colossal, naked school of Dumas 
and Hugo? I do not know what resemblance the 
critics may find between my feeble work and Antony, 
Lucrece Borgia, Henri III and Le roi s } amuse. . . Ma- 
cias is a man who loves, nothing more. . . To portray 
Macias as I imagined he might or should have been, 
to develop the feelings he would have had in the 
frenzy of his mad passion, and to depict a man, 
such was the purpose of my drama." 17 

Hartzenbusch tells us that the play was presented 
"con grandes aplausos." 18 

March 22 of the following year (1835) saw the 
presentation of a play still more unrestrainedly Ro- 
mantic, the Duke of Rivas' Don Alvaro o la fuerza 
del sino. Its success at first seemed doubtful (Hart- 
zenbusch, op. cit.), but was later fully assured. A 
more extreme example of what a Romantic play can 
be at its wildest would be hard to find. 19 

The next Romantic play to take the boards, at 
the end of the year 1835, was Pacheco's Alfredo. 
The theme is not unlike that of Don Alvaro; Alfre- 
do's father is reported to be dead, and Alfredo falls 
violently in love with his widow Bertha, and kills 
her brother when the latter interrupts a night inter- 
view of the lovers. As Alfredo and Bertha are about 



17 Obras completes de Figaro, 2da edicion, Paris, 1857, 
vol. ii, p. 480. 

18 Ob. esc. de Don Antonio Garcia Gutierrez, preface, p. xv. 

19 A synopsis of this play is given and the play discussed at 
length in Pifieyro, El romanticismo en Espana, pp. 70 ff . ; in 
Blanco Garcia, La lit. esp. en cl S. XIX, vol. i, pp. 144 ff. ; and 
Karl A. Regensburger, Vber den Trovador des Garcia Gutierrez, 
pp. 49 ff. 

47 



The Advent of the Romantic Drama in Spain 

to be married, the form of the murdered brother 
appears and tells them that Alfredo's father is not 
dead. The father does in fact return; Alfredo 
murders him when he himself is deserted by Bertha, 
and, in turn, crying "A curse upon me," stabs 
himself. 20 

Martinez de la Rosa's Aben Hutneya, mentioned 
above, met with very little success when it was 
shown in Madrid early in 1836. Now that the Ro- 
mantic drama had come into vogue, this production 
of the disciple of moderation must have seemed 
insipid. Though it was constructed on the general 
principles of the Romanticists, it was far from con- 
taining the melodramatic extravagances of Don 
Alvaro. 

In addition to these plays by native authors, the 
Spanish stage was flooded with translations from the 
French. The year 1835, for example, saw the pro- 
duction in Madrid of translations of Casimir Dela- 
vigne's Les en f ants d'Edouard and of Hugo's Angelo 
and Lucrece Borgia. Hugo's Hernani and Dumas' 
Tkerese, Catherine Howard, Antony and La Tour 
de Nesle came in 1836. 

Larra 21 gives us an interesting picture of the state 
of the Spanish stage in an article published in the 
Revista de Espana of April 3, 1835. He tells us 
that the stage was then occupied by (1) the old 
drama, meaning anything prior to Cornelia; (2) the 



20 Cf. Regensburger, op. cit., pp. 51 52. 

21 Obras de Larra, Caracas, 1839, vol. I, p. 236. 



48 



The Romantic Dramas of Garcia Gutierrez 

melodrama from the Porte-Saint-Martin; (3) its 
elder brother the sentimental drama; (4) the clas- 
sical comedy of Moliere and Moratin; (5) the neo- 
classical tragedy; (6) translations from Scribe and 
his school; (7) the historical drama; and "not to 
forget anything", as Larra says, (8) the Romantic 
drama: 

"nuevo, original, cosa nunca hecha ni oida. . . des- 
cubrimiento escondido a todos los siglos y reservado 
solo a los Colones del siglo XIX. En una palabra, 
la naturaleza en las tablas, la luz, la verdad, la 
libertad en literatura, el derecho del hombre reco- 
nocido, la ley sin ley." 

Notwithstanding this hit at the Romanticists, 
Larra himself shortly afterwards writes a Romantic 
play. 

It was at this juncture that a new author, Garcia 
Gutierrez, appeared with El trovador to join the Ro- 
mantic cohorts. 



49 



CHAPTER III. 
First Dramatic Attempts and "El Trovador" 

The literary education of Garcia Gutierrez was 
necessarily that of the pseudo-Classic Eighteenth 
Century, for at the time there was no other sort 
in Spain; thus it was only natural that his earliest 
works should show this influence. But these early 
productions, consisting of a few poems and of a 
dramatic phantasy called Fingal, also show his natu- 
ral tendencies towards Romanticism. Along with 
imitations of the Eighteenth Century poet Melen- 
dez he has to his credit translations of Victor Hugo 
and imitations of the old Spanish ballads. These 
poems were published in 1840, 22 but many of them 
bear dates prior to 1835, the year when El trovador 
was written. 

We are told by Cayetano Rosell 23 that Fingal was 
one of the plays which Garcia Gutierrez brought 
with him when he ran away from home and came 



22 Poesias de Don Antonio Garcia Gutierrez, Madrid, 
Boix, 1840. 

28 In Aut. dram, content., introduction to Juan Lorenzo. 



51 



First Dramatic Attempts and "El Trovador" 

to Madrid. It is written in five acts, in romance 
heroico verse throughout. The assonance through 
all the first act is e-o; through the second, a-o; 
through the third, i-o; through the fourth, e-a; and 
through the fifth, a-a. The verse is well constructed, 
though the maintenance of such assonance schemes 
through whole acts leads to monotony. 24 

The play is composed in a highly tragic and 
sentimental, not to say lachrymose vein; there is not 
the faintest sign of the intermingling of comedy and 
tragedy, and no relaxation of the style noble. The 
first four lines give the key to the sentiment, style 
and mood of the whole play: 

";Yo no mas te vere, querida madre 
De Bosmina infeliz! Nunca tu seno 
A estrechar volvere, ni mas la calma 
Vere dichosa en tu regazo ledo." 

A brief outline of the play may be given as 

follows: 

Bosmina, who has never known her father, is 
now lamenting at the fresh grave of her mother 
Morna. The Celtic king Rino and his son Fingal 
return from a victorious war. Fingal is passionately 
in love with Bosmina and she with him, but Rino 
opposes their union. Oppressed by a sense of guilt, 
he confesses to his companion Sorglan that Bosmina 
is his own daughter, born to him of Morna, who he 
had brought home in captivity from a neighboring 



24 For treatment of such verse-forms, see Andres Bello, 
Ortologia y metrica (vol. IV of Obras completas), Madrid, 1890. 



The Romantic Dramas of Garcia Gutierrez 

kingdom conquered by him years before. To avoid 
the impossible situation, Rino determines that Bos- 
mina shall marry her despised suitor Dutcaron. 
Bosmina and Fingal are informed that they are 
brother and sister. In spite of this, their wild passion 
continues. Fingal, driven to madness, kills Dut- 
caron. When he comes on the stage with his dagger 
still bloody, Bosmina tries to calm him, calling him 
brother. Fingal exclaims: 

". . . Mis delitos 
Morir me ordenan. . . sin tu amor. . . oh rabia. . ." 
and stabs himself. 

In the vast uncontrollable passion of Fingal we 
have a foretaste of Romanticism; as in El trovador, 
MaciaSy Los amantes de Teruel, we have lovers 
coming to grief through no fault of their own; they 
are victims of circumstances and blind fate. The 
unpleasant story of unnatural love of brother for 
sister has been familiar in literature from the time 
of the biblical narrative of Ammon and Tamar 
(II Samuel, 13) down to Chateaubriand's Rene. 
Chateaubriand had become popular in Spain from 
the very first years of the Nineteenth Century, 25 
and his work must have been known to all the 
Spanish Romanticists. On the other hand, there is 
no proof that Garcia Gutierrez was acquainted with 
Duds' play Abufar (1795) in which this situation 
figures. Here we have Farhan fleeing from the tent 
of his father Abufar because of an unnatural attach- 



25 Cf. Fitzmaurice-Kelly, Hist, de la lit. esp., Paris, 1913, 
p. 408. 



53 



First Dramatic Attempts and "El Trovador" 

ment for his sister Salema — a love which she returns 
with equal ardor. The treatment of this unholy 
passion occupies most of the play, but at last Abufar 
reveals the fact that Salema is a foundling and not 
really his daughter, and the lovers are happy. Ex- 
cept for the denotement the plays are similar; in both 
pieces the unities are strictly observed; the verse, 
sonorous at times, is in general uninspired. As for 
Garcia Gutierrez's composition it is extremely mono- 
tonous throughout. 

Like some of the authors in our preceding chapter 
Garcia Gutierrez, not at first succeeding in having an 
original play presented, tried his hand at translation. 
French works were becoming more and more popular 
in the theatres of Madrid; the inexhaustible Scribe 
could not fail to be included among the playwrights 
in vogue in Spain. The first play translated by 
Garcia Gutierrez was Scribe's Le Vampire: Comedie- 
vaudeville en un acte (en societe avec M. Meles- 
ville; Theatre du Vaudeville, IS juin 1820). The 
Spanish version was presented in Madrid at the Tea- 
tro de la Cruz on October 10, 1834. The play is 
quite characteristic of Scribe's humor, with its 
pleasant dialogue, its elements of surprise, and its 
light and ingenious plot. 

The scene is laid in Hungary. Hermance had 
sworn eternal faith to her betrothed Adolphe; but 
he has been reported dead at least six months ago, 
and she is now the fiancee of the Baron de Lourdorff . 



54 



The Romantic Dramas of Garcia Gutierrez 

Her sister Nancy reproaches Hermance for being 
willing so soon to forget Adolphe. 

Adolphe 's uncle, the Count de Valberg, has been 
assured of his nephew's death in Temesvar, and 
Lourdorff swears he saw him die there. However, 
Valberg is amazed at a conflicting report. 

There is a rumor current in the neighborhood 
that the much dreaded vampires are abroad. Peters, 
the gracioso of the play, claims to have seen one 
lurking not far away. This vampire turns out to 
be Adolphe, who appears at the house, and learns 
of the infidelity of Hermance and of Nancy's con- 
stancy to his memory. He decides to invite himself 
to the wedding of Hermance and Lourdorff, during 
which he hides in a closet. Valberg declares at the 
ceremony that he is on the trail of his nephew; he 
feels sure that Adolphe is somewhere in hiding, and 
proclaims in a loud voice that if he could only see 
Adolphe, he would pardon him for his pranks. 
Adolphe thereupon comes out of hiding and receives 
his uncle's blessing. He insists that the marriage of 
Hermance and Lourdorff proceed, and is consoled 
by winning Nancy as his own bride. 

The next translation from Scribe made by Garcia 
Gutierrez was put on for the first time in Madrid 
in 1835, under the title Batilde o la America del 
Norte en 1775. The original, La Bohemienne ou 
VAmerique en 1775, written in collaboration with 
M. Melesville, had been shown in Paris at the 
Theatre du Gymnase in 1829. It was called "A 
historical drama in five acts." How "historical" it 
was is best shown by a synopsis: 



55 



First Dramatic Attempts and "El Trovador" 

Henriette, daughter of the English Governor Gage, 
stationed in Boston, Mass., has fallen in love with 
the country of her adoption, and especially with one 
of its patriots namel Lionel Lincoln. Lionel is Colonel 
of the Virginia Dragoons, stationed at Boston. Lord 
Gage, however, suggests Lord Cokney, a ridiculous 
fop who is his new secretary, as being a much more 
eligible suitor. Gage, in fact, suspects Lionel and 
his friend Arthur Winkerton, a Captain in the same 
regiment, of sedition. He accordingly invites a 
Gipsy, Zambaro, and his niece Bathilde, to come 
to his mansion, and bargains w T ith them to spy on 
Lionel and Arthur. They readily accept. Arthur is 
in a special degree persona non grata to the English 
authorities because he has recently killed an English 
officer in a duel. The Englishman had proposed a 
toast to England; Arthur had countered with a 
toast to America, and the duel followed. 

In Act II, Lionel and Arthur are discussing their 
plans for an uprising against the English. They 
are counting on the aid of the Baron de Courville, 
whose ship lies at anchor in the harbor. Zambaro 
and Bathilde have begun work. Bathilde has found 
it easy to gain the confidence of Lionel, but he has 
proven so charming that she begins to regret her 
hateful task of spying on him. 

Arthur is almost drowned as he attempts to visit 
De Courville's ship. Lionel, rushing to his aid, gives 
his wallet to Bathilde for safe keeping. Zambaro 
seizes it and finds in it a letter from De Courville. 

Act. III. Bathilde begs Zambaro to give up his 
mission of spying on the conspirators, but he refuses. 
He is having great success; he uses the letter of 
De Courville to good advantage, and is masquerad- 
ing as De Courville himself, learning more and more 

5 6 



The Romantic Dramas of Garcia Gutierrez 

secrets from Lionel and Arthur. But Lord Cokney 
comes in, and seeing him in the presence of the two 
Americans, says, "Ah! The Gipsy!" Seized by 
Lionel and Arthur, Zambaro explains to them that 
he had pretended to Gage and Cokney that he was 
a Gipsy so as not to arouse suspicion. The expla- 
nation is accepted. Lionel happens to mention that 
he has a letter, written in German, for a certain 
Zambaro, but of course Zambaro is unable to 
claim it. 

Henriette writes Lionel a note of warning that he 
is being trailed, and, coming to his inn escorted by 
Cokney, she pretends to swoon and gets the note 
to him. 

A meeting of the revolutionists decides upon 
seven o'clock for a general uprising. Zambaro mut- 
ters that the leaders will all be arrested at five. 

Act IV. Zambaro has discovered that Bathilde 
really loves Lionel, and seeks to help her by double- 
crossing Gage. But the real Baron de Courville 
appears, and Zambaro is put in close confinement. 
Lionel confesses to Arthur his love for Bathilde. 
Bathilde sees Lionel, confesses to him her part in 
spying on him, and receives his forgiveness. 

While Zambaro is held prisoner with a pistol 
pointed at him through a curtain, Cokney comes 
in and talks freely to him of Gage's measures to 
frustrate the conspirators. Lionel and Arthur there- 
fore determine to begin the uprising immediately. 

Act V. Bathilde learns from the letter to Zam- 
baro that she is really the daughter of Lord Gage 
by an earlier marriage, and that she had been stolen 
by Zambaro 's brother. The attack on the English 
has begun. Cokney is telling Gage of its progress 
when Lionel and Arthur burst in. Gage is saved 

57 



First Dramatic Attempts and "El Trovador" 

only by the intervention of Bathilde, who comes in 
at this moment, and, revealing her identity, pleads 
with Lionel to save her father. Lionel asks Gage 
for her hand; but she says that Henriette is far 
worthier than she, and resolves to go to England 
with her father. Gage promises Lionel and Arthur 
to plead with the English parliament for America. 

This play is fairly typical of the voluminous work 
of Scribe. The interest is entirely in the develop- 
ment of the plot. The characters are but puppets 
very hastily sketched. The episodical character of 
the play is its only point of contact with the Ro- 
mantic drama. There is nothing to show that this 
or any other play of Scribe's exerted any profound 
influence on Garcia Gutierrez. Nevertheless, he 
translated one more play of Scribe's before entering 
the field with a drama of his own. Le Quaker et la 
danseuse was a one-act play written by Scribe in 
collaboration with M. Paul Duport, and was first 
presented in Paris at the Theatre du Gymnase on 
March 28, 1831. Garcia Gutierrez's version ap- 
peared in 1835. 

Georgina Barlow, a dancer, pursued by all the 
gilded youth of London, has promised to marry 
Lord Darsie unless within a year she finds someone 
else she likes better. When the year has almost 
expired, a friend of the Quaker James Morton is 
injured in an accident and is brought to Georgina's 
house. Morton comes to see him there, and Georgina 
is much amused by his strict principles and some- 
what chagrined by his failure to react to her charms. 

58 



The Romantic Dramas of Garcia Gutierrez 

As they talk, Morton mentions the fact that he once 
rescued an orphan and placed her in a home in 
Canterbury, whence she fled three years later with 
her dancing master. Georgina exclaims that she was 
the orphan, and explains that she fled to escape the 
scorn heaped upon her, and that her dancing master 
was never anything more than a friend. Finally 
Georgina is so impressed by Morton's sturdy char- 
acter that she decides to dismiss Darsie. The latter 
challenges Morton to a duel, but gives up the idea 
w T hen Morton gives an exhibition of his strength, 
and his skill with the pistol. Georgina and Morton 
are happily united. 

It was in this same year (1835) that Garcia Gu- 
tierrez's most celebrated play was composed. El 
trovador finally appeared on March 1, 1836, at the 
Teatro del Principe. Though the play is well known, 
a synopsis is given because we shall wish to discuss 
it in considerable detail. The scene is laid in Aragon, 
and the time is the early Fifteenth Century. 

Jornada Primera. — El Duelo. 

The first act takes place in the Aljaferia palace 
at Saragossa. Three servants of Don Nuno de Artal, 
Count of Luna, are talking together. Jimeno, the 
oldest, who has been in the service of the family 
for more than forty years, tells his two companions 
of strange events which occured in 1390. Don Lope 
de Artal, father of the present Count, had two 
children; Don Nuno was then six months old, and 
his brother Don Juan about two years. One night 
an old Gipsy woman, looking like a witch, came in 
and looked for a long time at the sleeping Don Juan. 

59 



First Dramatic Attempts and "El Trovador" 

She was driven out, but from that time on the child 
grew weaker and weaker. The old Gipsy was caught 
and burned as a witch, and Don Juan immediately 
became better. Jimeno advised that the daughter 
of the Gipsy also be burned, but this was not done. 
Don Lope had great reason to regret it, for the 
child suddenly disappeared, and his charred skeleton 
was found on the spot where the witch had been 
burned. 

Guzman, one of the other servants, has another 
tale to tell. Their master Don Nuno, says he, is 
wildly in love with Dona Leonor de Sese, sister of 
the proud Don Guillen. She, however, is in love 
with a troubadour named Manrique, who is in the 
service of the Count of Urgel, claimant to the 
throne of Aragon. Nothing is known of Manrique's 
origin. On the night before Guzman tells his story, 
Don Nuno secures a key to her apartment and 
determines to try to carry off Dona Leonor. Just as 
he is about to consummate his plan, he hears the 
sound of Manrique's lute. Manrique returns, think- 
ink Don Nuno to be some inquisitive squire. Dona 
Leonor comes down and, mistaking Nuno for the 
troubadour, leads him to the darkest part of the 
garden. But just then the moon shines out and 
Manrique sees the couple. He draws his sword and 
after a short fight disarms Don Nuno. 

All this long exposition — in prose — is contained 
in the first scene, of about a hundred and forty 
lines. The rest of the first act, all in verse, takes 
place in Dona Leonor 's chamber in the palace. 

Leonor 's brother Guillen reproaches her for lov- 
ing a nameless troubadour and for scorning the 
illustrious Don Nuno. Guillen states that his word 
is given, and she shall marry Nuno or go into a 
convent. She says: 

60 



The Romantic Dramas of Garcia Gutierrez 

Lo del convento mas bien. 
Guillen: <jEso tu audacia responde? 
Leonor: Que nunca sere del Conde — 

Nunca; <j1o ois, don Guillen? 

When Guillen leaves Leonor, she confesses to her 
companion Jimena her sorrow that Manrique is 
jealous of the Count and thinks her faithless. Man- 
rique comes in, disguised, and hearing her expla- 
nation, reassures her of his love. He says he will 
see her no more until the arms of Urgel triumph. 
Don Nuno comes in before Manrique leaves, re- 
proaches him with his low birth, and refuses to 
fight a duel with him. He is however finally pro- 
voked to consent, exclaming: 

Trovador, no me insulteis 
Si en algo el vivir teneis. 
Manrique: Don Nuno, pronto, salid. 

Jornada Segunda. — El Convento. 

A year has passed. Nuno and Guillen are in 
Nuno's apartments, lamenting the assassination of 
the Archbishop of Saragossa. Nuno has about re- 
covered from the severe wounds which he received 
at the hand of Manrique in their duel. Manrique 
is reported to have been killed at Velilla. Guillen 
tells Nuno that Leonor is to take her vows this 
very day in the Convent of Jerusalem. Upon Gui- 
llen's departure, Nuno summons his servant Guzman 
and orders him to abduct Leonor from the convent. 

Don Lope de Urrea comes in to report that the 
partisans of Urgel have sacked Castellar and that a 
revolt is planned in Saragossa. Nuno is ordered to 
confer with the king. He commands Guzman to 
use his sword even in the convent if necessary. 

61 



First Dramatic Attempts and "El Trovador" 

When Guzman is gone, Lope reports to Nuno a 
rumor that Manrique, supposed to be dead, is at 
the head of the rebels and has been seen in Saragossa. 
The sixth, seventh and eighth scenes take place 
in the passage-way between the convent and the 
church. Leonor confesses to Jimena that she cannot 
forget the troubadour, and asks God's aid. Manri- 
que and his servant Ruiz come in after the women 
leave, and wait in the hope of seeing Leonor. Guz- 
man and another servant of Nuno arrive. The re- 
ligious ceremony is heard, and the procession passes 
out of the church. Manrique raises his visor as 
Leonor walks by him; she falls fainting at his feet. 
Guzman and his companion flee. 

Jornada Tercera. — La Gitana 

The first three scenes take place in a hut near 
Saragossa. The Gipsy Azucena is talking to Man- 
rique. She tells him the story of the burning of 
her mother, who died crying for vengeance. She 
tells how she, Azucena, stole the child of the old 
Count of Luna. She was about to burn him on 
her mother's pyre, she says, when she was softened 
by the child's weeping. But then she seemed to 
hear anew the cry for vengeance; reaching out, she 
convulsively seized the child nearest her, and cast 
him into the fire: she had burned her own son 
instead of the Count's. Manrique, who had been 
reared by Azucena as her own child, says "Your 
son! Who am I then, who! ... I see it all." She 
immediately repents of having told the story and 
assures him that she said it merely to mock his 
ambition and test his love for her. Manrique as- 
sures her he loves her unswervingly. Ruiz enters 
to tell him that all is in readiness, and they depart. 

62 



The Romantic Dramas of Garcia Gutierrez 

Azucena laments his leaving without even bidding 
her farewell, and vows he shall never know the 
truth of his origin. "Why did I save his life," says 
she, "except in order that he might be a son to me?" 
In scene four, Leonor is kneeling in prayer in her 
cell. She confesses to God that she cannot drive 
Manrique 's image from her mind. As she ends her 
prayer, she hears the singing of the troubadour 
himself. He comes in, and protests his deep love 
for her, persuading her that she has sworn him 
eternal faith which cannot be broken. Says he: 

<iNo me juraste amarme eternamente 
Por el Dios que gobierna el firmamento? 
Ven a cumplirme, ven, tu juramento. 

Scenes six, seven and eight take place in a street 
before the church. A soldier tells Ruiz that their 
forces are outside the walls; the gate is guarded, and 
the king has left the city, evidently suspecting an 
uprising. Manrique brings Leonor out from the 
convent; she recovers consciousness as the alarm is 
sounded, and the king's partisans rush out to attack 
Manrique's forces. The curtain falls as Manrique, 
defending Leonor, fights with Don Guillen and Don 
Nuno. 

Manrique: Aqui, mis valientes. 

Nuno: fil es. 

Guillen: Traidor. 

Leonor: jPiedad, piedad! 

Jornada Cuarta. — La Revelacion. 

The scene is the camp of Nuno and Guillen. The 
latter tells Nuno that the rebels, headed by Man- 
rique, await them in Castellar. Guillen is blazing 
with desire to avenge the stain on his honor caused 

63 



First Dramatic Attempts and "El Trovador" 

by Manrique's abduction of Leonor, who is with her 
lover in Castellar. As they talk, soldiers drag in 
Azucena. She is recognized as the abductor of 
Nufio 's brother and is hurried off to prison ex- 
claiming: 

. . . Manrique, hijo, 
Ven a librarme. . . 

Nufio is the more enraged to find that Manrique 
is a Gipsy's son. 

Scene five takes place in Leonor's room in the 
Tower of Castellar. Leonor soliloquizes: 

. . .Y con eternos vinculos el crimen 
A su suerte me unio. . . Nudo funesto, 
Nudo de maldicion que alia en su trono 
Enojado maldice un Dios terrible. 
Manrique enters, much disturbed. He cannot 
forget his mother's story, and he has just had a 
dream in which he saw Leonor struck by lightning 
in a storm and torn from him. Ruiz enters, an- 
nouncing that Nufio and Guillen are moving on 
Castellar, and mentioning incidentally that they 
have captured a Gipsy woman. Manrique, realizing 
his mother's peril, orders the attack. He then con- 
fesses to Leonor that the Gipsy is his mother. Her 
devotion remains unfailing, and she resolves to go 
with him: 

Yo opondre mi pecho al hierro 
Que tu vida amenazare; 
Si, y a falta de otro muro, 
Muro sera mi cadaver. 

The clarion sounds, and when Manrique departs 
she prays 

jGran Dios! Protege su vida, 
Te lo pido por tu amor. 

64 



The Romantic Dramas of Garcia Gutierrez 

Jornada Quinta. — El Suplicio. 

The scene is in Saragossa, near the walls of the 
Aljaferia. Leonor and Ruiz have gained entrance 
into the city by bribing the guards. Manrique is 
in prison and Leonor resolves to save him at all 
hazards. She hears within the prison the lugubrious: 

"Hagan bien para hacer bien 
Por el alma de este hombre," 

but she is reassured by hearing Manrique sing: 

Despacio viene la muerte 
Que esta sorda a mi clamor; 
Para quien morir desea 
Despacio viene, por Dios. 
jAy! Adios, Leonor, 
Leonor. 

Leonor drinks a slow poison and goes to the 
apartment of the Count of Luna. Nufio and Guillen 
have been talking together; Nufio rejoices that the 
troubadour is so soon to die, while Guillen is eager 
to find Leonor and kill her to purge his honor. 
Nufio will not even await the king's approval of the 
death sentence on Manrique, but commands that 
he be beheaded immediately. When Guillen leaves, 
Leonor enters and finally gives Nufio her promise 
to be his if he will only save Manrique. She secures 
Nufio 's permission to see Manrique, promising to 
tell him to forget her and to repent of his treason 
in championing Urgel against the king. 

Scene 6 shows Azucena and the troubadour in a 
dark cell of the prison. Azucena says that her 
strength is failing; she is terrified at the thought 
of dying as her mother did, and cannot drive the 
dreadful image from her mind. She falls asleep 
thinking of her freedom in her beloved mountains. 

65 



First Dramatic Attempts and "El Trovador" 

Leonor comes to tell Manrique he is free. He is 
horrified at the idea of her pleading with Nuno for 
him. She assures him she can never be Nuno's and 
urges him to flee. The poison begins to take effect, 
and Manrique laments his doubt of her as she be- 
moans the cruelty of a fate which causes her to die 
for the sole crime of loving him. She dies in his 
arms; he welcomes the thought of his coming death, 
and is cursing Nuno as her slayer, when Nuno, 
Guillen and their soldiers enter. Nuno, seeing Leo- 
nor dead and inflamed with anger at Manrique, 
orders him to be taken to instant execution. He 
compels Azucena, who now awakes, to see him be- 
headed. She cries: 

jAy! jEsa sangre! 
and exclaims to Nuno: 

Si, si. . . luces. . . rel es. . . tu hermano, imbecil! 
Nuno cries: 

j'Mi hermano, maldicion! 

and flings her violently to the floor. With the bitter 
exclamation 

;Ya estas vengada! 
she expires. 

The political events mentioned in the drama are 
taken from the history of Aragon in the years 1410 
to 1413. An account of them is given in the Chron- 
icle of John II for those years. 26 

The reader may be reminded here that when 
Martin I of Aragon died in 1410, there were many 



26 Cf. Cronica de Juan II (por Perez de Guzman, B.A. E„ 
v. 68). 



66 



The Romantic Dramas of Garcia Gutierrez 

claimants to the throne, of whom the most important 
were the Infante Ferdinand I of Castile and the 
Count of Urgel. The latter supported his claims 
with arms; the Archbishop of Saragossa, who sup- 
ported Ferdinand, was murdered at Urgel's instiga- 
tion in 1411. Nine electors from the kingdom met 
in 1412 and declared in favor of Ferdinand, who 
already had troops on hand. Urgel continued to 
resist, but was forced to surrender in 1413. All his 
possessions were confiscated and he himself was 
imprisoned for life. Ferdinand appointed a governor- 
general to act for him. 

The other events and personages of the drama 
are imaginary. There was at the time a certain 
Anton de Luna, but he fought on the side of Urgel. 
Garcia Gutierrez may have chosen the name of 
Manrique under the influence of the career of Go- 
mez Manrique (c. 1415-1490), who was a warrior 
fighting in the rebellion against John II and 
Henry IV, as well as a celebrated poet, friend of 
the Marquis of Santillana. As to Luna, the name 
was famous in Spanish history, and the most 
illustrious bearer of it was Don Alvaro de Luna 
(c. 1385-1453), favorite of John II and nephew of 
Pope Benedict XIII (Pedro de Luna). The above 
mentioned Gomez Manrique wrote poems satirizing 
a certain Don Alvaro. This is probably not Don 
Alvaro de Luna, 27 but Garcia Gutierrez, who no 



27 Cf. Fitzmaurice-Kelly, op. cit., p. 121. 
67 



First Dramatic Attempts and "El Trovador" 

doubt read his poems, may easily have connected 
the two names. Gomez Manrique's friend the 
Marquis of Santillana was moreover a violent 
enemy of the same Don Alvaro de Luna. 

Thus the historical background of the play is 
fairly accurate, but the plot is by no means even 
suggested by these historical events. There is a 
play which antedates only slightly Garcia Gutierrez's 
El trovador, and which the latter resembles con- 
siderably in general outline and even in certain 
minor details. This play is Larra's Macias, pro- 
duced in Madrid, as we have said, in 1834. 28 

The scene is laid in Andujar, the residence of 
the Grand Master of Calatrava, and the action takes 
place in the month of January, 1406. 

Although Elvira loves the troubadour Macias, her 
hand has been promised by her father to Fernan 
Perez, a protege of the Grand Master. Elvira be- 
moans the absence of Macias, who had promised 
to return in a year to claim her. She is further 
distraught by a report that Macias, faithless to her, 
had married another. She therefore hastens her 
preparations for her wedding with Fernan Perez. 

Act II. The marriage ceremony is taking place, 
and the Grand Master is engaged in blessing the 
couple, when suddenly Macias appears in the rear 
of the hall, and demands to speak with him. The 
Grand Master manages to delay him until the com- 
pletion of the ceremony. Though Macias has suc- 



25 For the origin of the Macias-legend and its historical 
basis cf. H. A. Rennert, Macias o Namorado, Philadelphia, 1900. 



68 



The Romantic Dramas of Garcia Gutierrez 

ceeded in bursting in and attacking Fernan Perez, 
he is thrust aside, and later set at liberty by the 
Grand Master. 

Act III. Macias has secured permission for a duel 
with Fernan Perez, but he is unable to wait to see 
his beloved Elvira. He gains access to her house, and 
reproaches her for her inconstancy. She tells him 
she had believed him unfaithful, and is resisting 
his plea that she flee with him, when the Grand 
Master and her husband enter and seize Macias. He 
is thrown into prison to aw 7 ait the day of the duel. 
Fernan Perez, who has been discovered to be a 
coward and a murderer, roughly refuses Elvira's 
request to be sent to a nunnery. She discovers that 
her husband intends to murder Macias in prison, 
and decides to warn him. 

Act. IV. Macias is lamenting the loss of his be- 
loved when suddenly she appears before him. Telling 
him of her husband's treacherous plans, she be- 
seeches him to flee. He refuses to leave the prison 
without her, and while they talk the murderers 
arrive. Macias boldly attacks them, but falls mortal- 
ly wounded. Elvira stabs herself and falls upon 
his corpse. 

This play is similar in some respects to Dumas' 
Henri III et sa cour, which Larra mentions in the 
preface and which was produced in Paris Feb. 10, 
1829. In its origin it is likewise a very typical 
Spanish Romantic play, for in addition to showing 
the influence of the French Romantic school, it goes 
back to a play of Lope de Vega, Porfiar hasta morir, 
which deals with the same theme. In Henri III the 
action is concerned with the passion of Saint-Megrin 



69 



First Dramatic Attempts and "El Trovador" 

for the Duchess of Guise. She is bound to her hus- 
band, the Duke, as Elvira is bound to Fernan Perez, 
and the plight of Macias and of Saint-Megrin is the 
same. The husbands are alike cruel villains. A duel 
is planned between Macias and Fernan Perez, as 
between Saint-Megrin and Guise. In each case the 
unfortunate lover is the victim of the treachery 
of his lady's husband. In Henri III Saint-Megrin 
refuses to leave the scene in a final interview until 
the Duchess confesses she loves him, and when he 
at least leaps out of the window, the assassins kill 
him. In Larra's play, Macias refuses to escape un- 
less Elvira will go with him; his delay is fatal; 
Fernan Perez's hirelings put him to death. This is 
also somewhat similar to the last act of Hugo's 
Marion de Lorme (1831). 

Between Macias and El trovador there are still 
further points of similarity. In both, the love-motif 
is practically the same. Macias and Manrique are 
both men of tremendous passions, who find their 
love opposed by great obstacles and themselves 
confronted by powerful rivals. In each case the 
heroine loves a troubadour, but is about to be forced 
into marriage with a man of high degree. Macias 
and Manrique each seeks to carry off by force the 
object of his adoration. In Macias, Elvira hears that 
Macias has during his absence married another; in 
El trovador, Leonor learns that Manrique has been 
killed. In each play a duel is agreed upon between 
the favored lover and the more powerful rejected 

70 



The Romantic Dramas of Garcia Gutierrez 

suitor. Both Elvira and Leonor prefer the convent 
to living with a man who is not loved. Both 
troubadours fall into the hands of their cruel rivals 
and are killed by them ; the resolute efforts of Elvira 
and Leonor to save Macias and Manrique are un- 
availing, and both heroines commit suicide when 
their love is clearly hopeless. The corresponding 
personages of the two plays are similar. Macias and 
Manrique are both passionately in love, are both 
bold and skilful warriors, and are convinced that 
their love is more sacred than the religious or mar- 
riage vows of Leonor or Elvira. Cf. Macias, III, 4: 

Macias: Ven; a ser dichosa 

<;En que parte del mundo ha de faltarncs 
Un albergue, mi bien? Pvompe, aniquila 
Esos, que contrajiste, horribles lazos. 
Los amantes son solos los esposos. 
Su lazo es el amor: <;cual hay mas santo? 

with El trovador, III, 5: 

No, Leonor: tus votos indiscretos 
No complacen a Dios; ellos le ultrajan. 
Huyamos; nadie puede 
Separarme de ti. 

Macias is quick to reproach Elvira for supposed 
inconstancy. Cf. Macias, III, 4: 

jMujer, en fin, ingrata y veleidosa! 
I Ay! jlnfeliz del que creyo que amado 
De una mujer seria eternamente! 
ilnsensato! 

71 



First Dramatic Attempts and "El Trovador" 

with El trovador, I, 4: 

Demasiado te crei 
Mientras tierna me halagabas 
Y perfida me engafiabas. 
;Que necio, que necio fui! 

Elvira and Leonor are very much alike. Ready 
to give up all for their love, they are bold and 
resolute in their efforts to save their lovers. Both 
kill themselves, having made a vain sacrifice of their 
lives in a struggle against overwhelming fate. 

Nuno and Fernan Perez are both hard, cruel men, 
"noble" by birth alone. Nufio tries to have Leonor 
seized at the church where she is to take her vows; 
Fernan Perez's passion for Elvira is like that of 
Nuno for Leonor, and his desire for her is equally 
heedless of her own inclinations. Both men are 
entirely unscrupulous. 

Guillen, the brother of Leonor, corresponds closely 
with Nufio Hernandez, the father of Elvira. They 
are much concerned with making matches which 
will help them politically, are much obsessed with 
the notion of their own "honor," and have little 
consideration for the wishes of the lady concerned. 
Both are tyrants in their households. Guillen tells 
Leonor to choose between marrying the man he 
selects for her or entering a convent. Nufio Her- 
nandez tells Elvira she shall marry Fernan Perez 
or suffer his everlasting curse. 

Even the minor personages of the two plays sug- 



72 



The Romantic Dramas of Garcia Gutierrez 

gest each other — though here the resemblance may 
be conventional rather than significant. Both trou- 
badours are accompanied by servants who are useful 
from the standpoint of dramatic technique as con- 
fidants, and as reporters of events which are not 
shown on the stage. Both Fortun and Ruiz are 
rather colorless figures, conspicuous only for their 
devotion to their masters. Beatriz, the "duena joven 
de Elvira," as she is called in the "Personas," is 
much like Leonor's confidante Jimena, though the 
latter has a somewhat higher social position. They 
give aid and comfort to their mistresses, and are the 
female counterparts of Fortun and Ruiz. The 
soldiers of Fernan Perez have a close parallel in 
the armed retainers of Nuno. 

Not only is there a strong resemblance in the 
dramatis personae and their grouping in the two 
plays, but in many cases the very language of the 
two plays is almost identical, as is pointed out by 
C. A. Regensburger. 29 Compare for example the two 
scenes in which the heroines are being told by their 
guardians that marriage with a mere troubadour is 
impossible and that their hands have been promised 
to other, unloved, candidates: 

El trovador, I 2 Macias, I 4 

Guillen: Nuno Hernandez: 

Mil quejas tengo que daros Y estas son tus palabras, y 

[esto es el fruto 



29 Uber den Trovador des Garcia Gutierrez. Berlin, 1911. 
p. 55 ff. 



73 



First Dramatic Attempts and "El Trovador" 

Si oirme, hermana, quereis. De un ano de indulgencia y 

[de esperanza. . . 

En fin, mi palabra di ^Piensas que. . . la palabra 

De que suya habeis de ser. Que di solemnemente, olvi- 

[daria? 

Poco estimais, Leonor, . . . <; Mas que bienes 

El brillo de vuestra cuna Son los suyos, Elvira? <;Ca- 

Menospreciando al de Luna [ballero 

Por un simple trovador. Y no mas? ^Hombre de ar- 

[mas o soldado? 

<:Mal trovador, o simple 

[aventurero ? 

En fin, ya os dije mi intento. No mas rebozo ya ; tu de ese 
Ved como se ha de cumplir. [hidalgo 

Hoy la mujer seras. 

The virtues of Marias are thus praised by Elvira 
in answer to her father's request: 

Nuno Hernandez: 

El mancebo 
<:Quien es, y cuales timbres, que blasones 
Le ilustran a tus ojos? 

Elvira: 

Pero al menos sed justo: sus virtudes, 
Su ingenio, su valor, sus altos hechos 
No desprecieis, sefior. ,;D6nde estan muchos 
Que a Marias se igualen, o parezcan? 

<;Su ardimiento? ^Vos mismo no le visteis 
Ha un ano, poco mas, en Tordesillas 
Los premios del torneo arrebatando? . . . 
<:Quien supo mas bizarro en la carrera 
Hacer astillas la robusta lanza? 



74 



The Romantic Dramas of Garcia Gutierrez 

This is quite similar to the praise of the Count 
of Luna by Guillen: 

£Que visteis, hermana, en el 
Para asi tratarlo impia? 
<;No supera en bizarria 
Al mas apuesto doncel? 
A caballo, en el torneo, 
^ No admirasteis su pujanza? 
A los botes de su lanza. . . 
Leonor: Que cayo de un bote creo. 

The ending of the second act of El trovador is 
much like that of the second act of Macias, even 
in the words used by the heroines. In Macias, as 
Elvira comes out of the church where she has just 
been married, she sees Macias, who has been absent 
for a year and whom she has given up. Crying 
";E1 es!," she swoons. In El trovador, as Leonor 
comes out of the church in which she has just taken 
her vows as a nun, she sees Manrique, who has also 
been absent a year and whom she had given up as 
dead. With the exclamation, 

<jQuien es aquel? Mi deseo 
Me engana. . . ;Si, es el! 

she falls fainting at Manrique's feet. 

Attention seems not to have been called to this 
particular instance of resemblance, but further cases 
are cited by Regensburger (op. cit., pp. 60-63). 

"Compare El trovador V 7 with Macias IV 3. 
Situation and dialogue are the same. 



75 



First Dramatic Attempts and "El Trovador" 

The heroine enters the prison of the languishing 
troubadour: 



Manrique : 
<iNo es ilusion? 
(iEres tu? 

Leonor : 
Yo, si. . . yo soy; 
A tu lado al fin estoy 
Para calmar tu afliccion. 
. . . No pierdas tiempo, por 
[Dios. 

Manrique : 
Si, tu sola mi delirio 
Puedes, hermosa, calmar. 
Yen, Leonor, a consolar 
Amorosa mi martirio. 
Sientate a mi lado. ven. 



Macias : 
iQue miro? 

^Es ella? <;Sueno, deliro? 
i Elvira ! 

Elvira : 
jTente! Habla quedo. 

Las horas, infeliz, nos son 
Oye mi voz. [preciosas. 

Macias : 
Si, Elvira, llega y habla. 
j Habla y que oiga tu voz ! 
[Cuan deliciosa 
Suena en mi oido ! Un balsa - 
[mo divino 
Es para el corazon. 

Leonor, like Elvira, then informs the prisoner that 
she has made his escape possible: 



Leonor : 
... En libertad estas. 
. . . Pronto vete. . . 
Que nos observan quiza. 

Huye, vete, por Dios. 



Elvira : 
Sin demora 

Salvate, que a esto vengo. . . 
Los asesinos acaso aqui 
Su hierro aguzan. . . 
Urge el tiempo, parte de 
[aqui ; 

The road to freedom lies open. But neither Man- 
rique nor Macias will flee without his beloved. 

Manrique : Macias : 

<;S61o yo? iSin ti, bien mio? 

In vain does she urge swift escape. But sudden 
doubt as to the faithfulness of his beloved rises in 
the prisoner's breast. By what means has Leonor 
secured his pardon? Does Elvira perhaps come to 



76 



The Romantic Dramas of Garcia Gutierrez 

the prison merely through sympathy, having mean- 
while given her love to the troubadour's rival? In 
both cases the troubadour torments his lady with 
these suspicions, until he is at last convinced of 
the groundlessness of his apprehensions. Leonor and 
Elvira stand forth justified in their pure and lofty 
passion. Manrique and Macias burst into self-re- 
criminations. 

Manrique : Macias : 

<[Y es verdad? jNecio de mi! jQue injusta 

j Y yo ingrato la ofendi [y locamente 

Cuando muriendo por mi ! Mi fortuna acuse ! Cuando 

[alevoso 

Te llamo y te maldigo, jtu 

[a mis brazos 

Secretamente entre peligros 

[tornas ! 

i Perdon, idolo mio ! 

Casting aside all false modesty, Elvira, like Leo- 
nor, at last openly expresses her love for the trou- 
badour in the most passionate words. 

Leonor : Elvira : 

<iNo sabes que te queria Si, yo tambien se amar. Mu- 

Con todo mi corazon? [jer ninguna 

Amo cual te amo yo. 

In both cases, however, the time for salvation has 
passed. The lovers all see death before their eyes. 

Elvira: Primero que ser suya, entrambos juntos 

Muramos. 
Macias: Si, muramos. 

Manrique likewise goes fearlessly and resolutely 
77 



First Dramatic Attempts and "El Trovador" 

to meet death, in accord with his words at the 
beginning of the scene: 

M antique: ^Debes tu morir tambien? 
Muramos juntos los dos. 

Then comes the catastrophe, in the presentation 
of which the dramas are not completely similar (cf. 
Macias IV 3, 4 and El trovador V 7, 8) ; the situa- 
tion is, however, the same: both lovers perish in 
prison before the eyes of their rivals. Pointing to 
Elvira, the dying Macias cries out triumphantly to 
his enemy: 

. . . Es mia 

Para siempre. . . si. . . arrancamela ahora, tirano. 

Manrique similarly answers Don Nuno's question: 

Nitho : 

<;D6nde esta Leonor? 
Manrique: <;D6nde? Aqui estaba 

;Venis a arrebatarmela en la tumba? 

After what has been said, there is no doubt that 
the main plot of El trovador, the story of the ill- 
starred love between Manrique and Leonor, is pat- 
terned directly on the Macias tragedy. But even in 
style and diction, numerous agreements are dis- 
cernible. They are especially evident in the pas- 
sionate outcries and lamentations of the hero himself. 

Compare El trovador V 7: 

Clava en mi pecho un punal 
Antes que verte perjura 
Llena de amor y ternura 
En los brazos de un rival. 



78 



The Romantic Dramas of Garcia Gutierrez 

with Macias II 9: 

Clavame antes en el pecho 
Un pufial que eso me digas. 

Further: El trovador V 7: 

jLa vida! <jEs algo la vida? 
jUn doble martirio! jUn yugo! 

with Macias III 5: 

<iQue es la vida? 

jUn tormento insufrible, si a tu lado 

No he de pasarla ya!" 

Even the accessories for heightening the effect in 
the prison scene in Macias — the torches of the ap- 
proaching retainers — have been taken over by Gar- 
cia Gutierrez. The soldiers appear "con luces" (El 
trovador V 8) and Don Nuno cries, pointing to 
Manrique's corpse, 

jAlumbrad a la victima, alumbradla! 
whereas Elvira dies with the words (Macias IV 4) 

Llegad; y jque estas bodas alumbren 
Vuestras teas funerales! 

In El trovador, then, we have a play based on 
Macias, which in turn was a development of Lope 
de Vega's Porfiar hasta morir worked over accord- 
ing to the Romantic formula, as especially exempli- 
fied in Dumas' Henri HI et sa cour. But Garcia 
Gutierrez was not content to follow his model quite 
so closely as the preceding paragraphs might lead 



79 



First Dramatic Attempts and "El Trovador" 

one to suppose; for he added a very important 
element by creating the role of Azucena and all 
which that entailed. In so doing he added to the 
theme of unhappy love the theme of vengeance. 

"One of these two elements," says Piiieyro {op. 
cit. y p. 98), "would have been sufficient for the 
construction of an interesting drama in the manner 
of Lope de Vega or Calderon. The poet, seeking 
something more, creates then the tragic figure of 
Azucena, the Gipsy, who for years and years has 
been preparing her frightful revenge; he thus makes 
his poem grander, and constructs from it with a 
widened horizon a vast picture of violent passions, 
of love and hate. . ." 

The theme of vengeance as a moving force is as 
old as the drama itself. There were conspicuous 
examples of it in the French and Spanish Romantic 
theatres prior to the year 1836. For instance, in 
Dumas 7 Henri III et sa cour, it is the vengeance 
of the Duke of Guise on Saint-Megrin which mo- 
tivates the denoument. This play was produced in 
1829. In Victor Hugo's Marie Tudor (1833) much 
of the action is concerned with Gilbert's vengeance 
on Fabiani, who has insulted him and seduced his 
sweetheart Jane. Dumas' Catherine Howard (1834) 
furnishes an excellent example of the treatment of 
vengeance by a melodramatic Romanticist. Ethel- 
wood, secretly married to Catherine, is finally be- 
trayed by her in favor of King Henry VIII. 
Catherine proves to be by no means like Caesar's 



SO 



The Romantic Dramas of Garcia Gutierrez 

wife, and Henry has her sentenced to death. She 
appeals to the Judgment of God against the sentence 
of the Court of the Star Chamber; Ethelwood de- 
feats her champion. She bribes the executioner to 
desert his duties and to leave the city, but King 
Henry offers a reward of twenty pounds to anyone 
who will volunteer to perform the executioner's 
duties. This is the sort of opportunity for which 
Ethelwood has been waiting. He strikes off Cath- 
erine's head and, unmasking, cries ". . .j'ai frappe 
la coupable; voici le complice." In the Don Alvaro 
of the Duke of Rivas, the brothers of Leonor spend 
their lives trying to avenge their father's death and 
their sister's disgrace. Her older brother is killed 
in Italy in a duel with Don Alvaro; her second 
brother, Don Alfonso, finally discovers Don Alvaro 
in the monastery and is fatally wounded by him. 
Leonor rushes up and her brother, seizing his dagger 
with his last convulsive strength, stabs her, with the 
words, "Toma, causa de tantos desastres, recibe el 
precio de tu deshonra. . . Muero vengado." 

With these recent examples in mind, it seems not 
unnatural that Garcia Gutierrez should have in- 
cluded the theme of vengeance in El trovador, as 
he did in some of his later works. Nor was it 
strange that he should have chosen a Gipsy to em- 
body it. Gipsies were, and still are, a familiar sight 
in Spain, and especially in Garcia Gutierrez's native 
Andalusia. He must have heard in his youth many 
tales of children kidnapped by Gipsies; Spanish 



81 



First Dramatic Attempts and "El Trovador" 

literature had also been familiar with them from 
the earliest times. The Libro de Apolonw 80 (early 
thirteenth century) contained the story which was 
the prototype of the numerous Gipsy stories, from 
Cervantes' La Gitanilla (1632) to Victor Hugo's 
Notre-Dame de Paris (1831). The Medora of Lope 
de Rueda (c. 1510-1565) deals with a child stolen 
by Gipsies, and this play is based on an earlier 
one called La Zingana (1545) by Gigio Artemio 
Giancarli. 31 In the same year in which Garcia Gu- 
tierrez wrote El trovador, he translated the play of 
Scribe which tells the story of the daughter of an 
English nobleman whose identity is discovered after 
she has been held by Gipsies for many years. This 
play was La Bohemienne, already outlined in this 
chapter. It is possible, too, that Garcia Gutierrez 
may have known the play of Ducange and Frederic 
called La sorciere, ou Vorphelin ecossais. 32 This 
piece, based on Scott's Guy Mannering, was pro- 
duced in 1821, and deals with the career of Lord 
Bertram's son Arthur, who was stolen in his youth 
by the Gipsy Meg Merillies. 

In the preceding instances the children in question 
were recognized in time to make a happy denoument. 
Such an ending was impossible in El trovador. Its 
conclusion reminds us strongly of the last act of 



30 Cf. Fitzmaurice-Kelly, op. cit., p. 290. 

31 Cf. Ticknor, Hist, of Span Lit., New York, 1854, Vol. II, 
Chap. VII. 

32 In Theatre contemporain illustre, Paris, Levy Freres, s. d. 



82 



The Romantic Dramas of Garcia Gutierrez 

Dumas' La Tour de Nesle (1832), which Garcia 
Gutierrez afterwards translated under the title of 
Margarita de Borgona (see page 106). We have here 
a mother, Marguerite de Bourgogne, who brings 
about the death of her two sons, discovering their 
identity shortly afterwards. Buridan, their father, 
and Marguerite burst into the locked room of the 
Tower of Nesle in time to see their son Gaultier 
d'Aulnay die at the hands of the assassin whom Mar- 
guerite has hired (Act V, sc. 4). She cries "Malheu- 
reux, malheureux, je suis ta mere!" He replies with 
his dying breath, "Ma mere? Eh bien, ma mere, 
soyez maudite!" We have much the same sort of 
melodramatic situation at the end of El trovador, 
when Azucena cries to Don Nuno: u El es tu her- 
mano, imbecil," and he replies " ; Mi hermano ! ; Mal- 
dicion!" In Pacheco's Alfredo, we have the murder 
of a father by his son, and in Martinez de la Rosa's 
Conjuration de Venecia a father presides over the 
tribunal which passes the death sentence upon his 
son. The trick of having parents kill their children 
and vice versa, and brother murder brother without 
knowing each other's identity was very popular at 
the time, and we shall see Garcia Gutierrez relying 
upon it again in his next play. 

In minor matters of technique Garcia Gutierrez 
often follows his immediate French predecessors. 
For example, he has a title for each one of his five 
acts, or "jornadas/ as he calls them for the sake 
of giving them an archaic flavor. Such titles had 



83 



First Dramatic Attempts and "El Trovador" 

not been used in the Spanish theatre, but had come 
into favor in France with Hernani (1830), and 
were promptly used by Dumas, as in La Tour de 
Nesle. They were not used by Larra, Martinez de 
la Rosa or Hartzenbusch, but had been employed 
by Pacheco in Alfredo. The division of El trovador 
into five acts was likewise due to French influence, 
for the Spanish classic theatre used three. The 
pseudo-classic Eighteenth Century used five as a 
rule, following the French formula, as did La con- 
juration de Venecia, Don Alvaro and Alfredo. La- 
rra's Macias is divided into only four acts. In the 
use of both prose and verse in El trovador, Garcia 
Gutierrez broke with both French and Spanish 
tradition. The first Spanish Romanticist to do this 
was the Duke of Rivas in his Don Alvaro. The 
Duke spent much of his political exile in Malta with 
the cultured Englishman John Hookham Frere, and 
very probably read Shakespeare in Frere's library. 
Later, in Paris, he must certainly have read him 
under the influence of enthusiasts like Hugo, who 
in his preface to Cromwell declares Shakespeare to 
be the epitome of the drama of the Modern Era. 
It seems therefore quite possible that the use of a 
mixture of prose and verse goes back to the great 
English dramatist. The French Romantic plays were 
written either entirely in verse or entirely in prose. 
In Don Alvaro prose is employed in scenes in which 
the main participants are of minor social importance, 
as in the exposition scene (Act I, sc. 1). The same 



84 



The Romantic Dramas of Garcia Gutierrez 

plan is followed in the main by Garcia Gutierrez, 
though in scene 7 of Act III the participants are 
Leonor and Manrique. Prose is used in Act I, sc. 1, 
in the conversation of the servants Guzman, Jimeno, 
and Ferrando; in all except the first speech in Act II, 
sc. 2, between Don Nuno and Guzman, and in scenes 
3, 4 and 5 of the same Act, with Don Nuno, Don 
Lope and Guzman; in Act III, scenes 1, 2 and 3, 
giving the conversation between Azucena and Man- 
rique; in sc. 6, between Ruiz and a soldier; sc. 7, 
between Leonor and Manrique, and sc. 8 (only eight 
words long), depicting the fight between the ad- 
herents of Don Nuno and those of Manrique; and 
in sc. 6 of Act V, between Azucena and Manrique. 
The last eight lines of this scene, recited by Manri- 
que after Azucena has fallen asleep, are in verse. 
Approximately one fourth of the play is in prose 
— about the same proportion, incidentally, as in 
Hamlet. 

The first scene of El trovador is used solely for 
the exposition of the plot. We have three servants 
talking together of dark and mysterious events, 
including the disappearance of a child who is later 
to be the hero of the drama. This scene is strikingly 
like the first scene of Victor Hugo's Lucrece Borgia 
(1833). In both cases the oldest servant relates the 
story to two younger ones, who punctuate the ac- 
count with expressions of astonishment or approval. 
In Lucrece Borgia, Jeppo begins: "Moi, je sais les 
faits, messeigneurs, je les tiens de mon cousin. . . 



85 



First Dramatic Attempts and "El Trovador" 

Void, c'est quatorze cent quatre-vingt-dix-sept. . ." 
In El trovador, Jimeno says: "Nadie mejor que yo 
puede saber esa historia. . . Ya os la contare como 
ello paso por los afios de 1390." Similar exposition 
scenes were used by Dumas in La Tour de Nesle 
and by the Duke of Rivas in Don Alvaro, though in 
these two plays the protagonists themselves appear 
during the scene, and the dramatic machinery is 
therefore a little less conspicuous. Moreover, the 
comic element is present in the plays of Dumas, 
Hugo and the Duke of Rivas, both in these earliest 
scenes and elsewhere; in El torvador it is entirely 
lacking. 

In his story Jimeno mentions the night interview 
in which Leonor mistook Don Nuno for her lover 
and was much frightened to discover her mistake; 
Manrique is near by and disarms Don Nuno. This 
is quite similar to Hemani, Act II, sc. 2, in which 
Dona Sol mistakes Don Carlos for Hernani in the 
darkness; Hernani comes up and drives off the 
king. 33 

In Don Alvaro, the heroine Leonor takes refuge 
in a convent, where Don Alvaro at last finds her. 
This may possibly have suggested the idea of a 
convent scene to Garcia Gutierrez, but the state- 
ment of Regensburger (op. tit., p. 78) that the 
"convent theme comes directly from Don Alvaro" 
can hardly be accepted. The convent was the na- 



33 Cf. Regensburger, op. cit., p. 78. 
86 



The Romantic Dramas of Garcia Gutierrez 

tural refuge of young women in the Middle Ages, 
and its employment under the circumstances seems 
rather an obvious solution of the difficulty. The 
abduction of Leonor from the convent and the 
escape of the lovers to Castellar were Garcia Gutie- 
rrez's own invention, and his debt to the Duke of 
Rivas' play in this respect is small indeed. 

The circumstances in Act V of El trovador are 
somewhat similar to those in the last act of Hugo's 
Marion de Lorme. In the latter play Marion, find- 
ing all other plans of no avail, surrenders herself to 
the jailer Laffemas so as to win the release of 
Didier; in El trovador Leonor promises Don Nufio 
to be his if he will free Manrique. Didier will have 
no delivrance bought at this price; Manrique like- 
wise says (Act V, sc. 7) : 

No quiero la libertad 
A tanta costa comprada. 

But the circumstances are very different, in that 
Marion had really paid the price to Laffemas, and 
had hoped that she and Didier might be free to go 
forth together, whereas Leonor had merely given 
Nufio an empty promise and nothing more, having 
taken poison before talking with him. 

We have endeavored in the preceding paragraphs 
to show the general influences affecting Garcia Gu- 
tierrez when he composed El trovador, and to 
itemize the particular points in which he was in- 
debted to his predecessors. We by no means wish 

87 



First Dramatic Attempts and "El Trovador" 

to leave the impression, however, that the drama 
is a mere synthesis of parts borrowed from other 
authors and consequently quite lacking in originality, 
for such is not the case. It is obvious from a mere 
cursory reading of El trovador that it is cast in 
the Romantic mould, with many similarities to the 
works of French Romantic dramatists; and from 
closer study it is evident that certain scenes, even 
certain sentences are quite similar to the correspond- 
ing parts of other dramas which Garcia Gutierrez 
knew and admired. Yet the play as a whole remains 
an original dramatic creation. We have seen that 
the piece which it most resembles in general plan 
and in many particulars is Larra's Macias. Larra 
himself was the foremost dramatic critic of the day, 
and if he had thought El trovador a mere copy of 
his own play, produced the preceding year, it would 
have been easy and natural for him to say so; on 
the contrary, he devoted a rather long article to the 
criticism of El trovador; 2,4 ' he bestows high praise 
upon the new star among dramatic authors; he 
commends him for his well conceived plan, the skill- 
ful development of the plot, and its satisfactory 
denoument, and states that its faults are due merely 
to the author's lack of dramatic experience. The 
originality of the play consists in the happy com- 
bination of the motifs of love and hate, inter- 
twining the two until they reach a catastrophe which 



34 Cf. Obras de Figaro, Paris, Baudry, 1857, vol. II, pp. 
80-83. 



The Romantic Dramas of Garcia Gutierrez 

is a logical solution of both. The vigor of the 
scenes, the skilful condensation of the action, and 
the lyric beauty of much of the verse are all Garcia 
Gutierrez's own creation, and are enough to give 
him, as they have done, a very important place 
among Spain's dramatists of the Romantic era. 

The character of Leonor is finely drawn, and is 
made more interesting and convincing by the conflict 
waged in her soul between her love for Manrique 
and her duty to remain faithful to her vows as a nun. 
We feel sure that her love will triumph, for she had 
already shown her brother Don Nuno that she re- 
cognized no human right to force her affections or 
control her hand; she refuses absolutely to be a 
sacrifice to his ambition, and that in no uncertain 
terms, for in the first scene in which she appears 
(Act I, sc. 2), she defies her brother: 

Que nunca sere del conde. . . 
Nunca. <;Lo ois, don Guillen? 

Her will can be bent only by one who loves her and 
whom she loves. For him she is capable of entire 
self-abnegation, as shown by her words in Act I, 
sc. 3: 

. . . Ven, trovador, y mi lloro 

Te dira como te adoro, 

Y mi angustia te dira. 

Mirame aqui prosternada; 

Ven a calmar la inquietud 

De esta mujer desdichada; 

Tuyo es mi amor, mi virtud. . . 

<;Me quieres mas humillada? 

89 



First Dramatic Attempts and "El Trovador" 

When Manrique suspects her of unfaithfulness, she 
has no indignation toward him, only sorrow at his 
suspicions. When he says: 

No vengo lleno de amor 
Cual un tiempo. . . 

she replies simply: 

•Desdichada! 

and patiently explains how she mistook the Count 
for him in the darkness of the garden. Her love is 
by no means merely passive; for Manrique she will 
desert the convent — where she has never been able 
to drive him from her mind — and when he is im- 
prisoned she does her utmost to bring about his 
deliverance. When at last she sees the hopelessness 
of struggling against fate, she even humbles herself 
to the Count. There can be no more happiness for 
her; she takes poison, not caring for her fate, if only 
she may liberate her beloved troubadour. 

The character of Manrique is painted with less 
delicate strokes. He loves Leonor, but his love is not 
at all one which trusts and can remain unshaken 
under all circumstances. In his supposed disillusion- 
ment in Act I, sc. 4, he is bitter toward Leonor. 
When she says, at his coming: 

<jNo ves? Lloro de placer, 
he replies: 

<;Quien, per jura, te creyera? 
But his chagrin was caused by his love for her, for 



90 



The Romantic Dramas of Garcia Gutierrez 

he confesses, after her explanation, that he could 
never risk death in Saragossa, the citadel of his 
enemies, except for her. He then continues: 

. . . No, ya no dudo 
Ni asi pudiera vivir; 
Me amas, <?es verdad? Lo creo 
Porque creerte deseo 
Para amarte y existir. 
Porque me fuera la muerte 
Mas grata que tu desden. 

Toward others he is proud and haughty, as toward 
Don Nunc. With his supposed mother, he is at 
times loving and tender, at times forgetful, as when 
(Act III, sc. 2) he goes off with Ruiz without even 
bidding her farewell. Heroic always, he even longs 
for death after Leonor can no longer be his. 

The sinister figure of Azucena, entirely an original 
creation, is probably the most interesting in the 
play, though she does not come upon the stage until 
Act III. Her very first lines, the song beginning: 

Bramando esta el pueblo indomito 
De la hoguera en derredor, 

strike the keynote of her passion for vengeance. 
She is irresistibly drawn toward the spot where her 
mother was burned; the idea of completing her re- 
venge never leaves her until her last bitter cry "jYa 
estas vengada!" She desires Manrique's affection, 
however, and she wishes him to shield her in her 
old age, as she says in her soliloquy in Act III, sc. 3. 
In Act IV, sc. 6, she tells Manrique that she loves 



91 



First Dramatic Attempts and "El Trovador" 

him as her own life, and has prayed for him the 
whole night through. She dreams of fleeing with 
him to her native mountains, but all the while she 
knows that a word from her can save him from the 
hands of Don Nuno, a word which she witholds 
until it is too late. 

The greatest defect in the play is the poorly 
accounted-for burning of her own son by Azucena. 
Audiences might and do pardon the strange dispensa- 
tions of chance in this and other Romantic plays, 
but Azucena's explanation that her hand reached 
out convulsively for a victim and seized her own 
son, throwing him in the fire without even looking 
at him, seems to overstrain even the most complete 
credulity. It adds very little to the play; the disap- 
pearance of Azucena's own son could easily have 
been accounted for in some other way, Pineyro says 
(op. tit., p. 101): "I have known persons (not of 
Spanish origin and unacquainted with the Spanish 
text) who have heard Verdi's opera // Trovatore 
several times without getting a clear idea of the 
meaning of this scene." 

Larra (op. cit.) has pointed out other defects of 
the drama, which, says he, all spring from the 
author's inexperience. "He has imagined a vast plot, 
the plot of a novel rather than of a drama, and he 
has invented a magnificent novel, but in reducing 
an over-rich conception to the narrow limits of the 
theatre, he has had to struggle with the smallness 
of his mould. 



92 



The Romantic Dramas of Garcia Gutierrez 

"The result is that many entrances and exits are 
scarcely justified; among them the entrance of the 
outlaw Manrique into Saragossa and into the palace, 
in the first act; his entry into the convent in the 
second act, his introduction into Leonor's cell in 
the third, a thing too difficult in all periods not to 
deserve an explanation. Neither is it natural that 
the Count Don Nuno, who must be very distrustful 
of the tardy promises of a woman who has pre- 
ferred the convent to his hand, should allow her 
to go to the troubadour's prison, the more so since 
she has not even any order from him to set him 
at liberty, without which the concession which she 
has won from him cannot suffice, cannot even do 
any good." Larra also objects to the first scene of 
the drama, which, he says, is rather a prologue in 
prose than a scene of the play. He disapproves 
moreover of the mixture of prose and verse. 

It is quite fair to point out the defects of the 
play as judged by contemporary standards; in this 
case the faults which Larra has pointed out are also 
apparent to those who view the Romantic era in 
retrospect. Other defects which we observe must not 
be imputed to Garcia Gutierrez alone, but to the 
Romanticists in general. The passions of the pro- 
tagonists, Leonor, Manrique and Azucena, may seem 
to us exaggerated; but the portrayal of the passions 
of the individual was one of the chief tenets of the 
Romantic school. The passions of these three are 
by no means more exaggerated than is the case 



93 



First Dramatic Attempts and "El Trovador" 

in the dramas of Hugo, and they are much more 
universally human than in the plays of the elder 
Dumas. The dispensations of a blind fate which 
drives men and women to love, and makes their 
love lure them to their destruction, is quite in ac- 
cordance with the Romantic formula. The contest 
rages about Leonor, who becomes its innocent 
sacrifice. 

The author's lack of stage experience may have 
led him into errors, but the vigorous movement of 
the whole play and the numerous excellent theatrical 
effects show him as possessed of a powerful dramatic 
instinct. No time is wasted in useless dialogue or 
soliloquy, and the interest of the spectator is well 
sustained from beginning to end. The play is quite 
concise, more so than many of the author's later 
works. Even in the first scene, which is a mere story, 
the narration is rapid and is made to seem natural 
by the remarks of the listeners. The final words are 
worth quoting as a specimen of simple and vivid 
narrative. 

Guzman: "His (Don Nufio's) intention was to 
enter Leonor's room, for which purpose he had 
provided himself with a key. 

Jimeno: What? In the palace! He really dared to? 

Guzman: He actually entered; but at the very 
moment when, full of love and expectancy, he 
thought to realize his supreme happiness, a prelude 
from the lute of the accursed troubadour sounded 
to awaken him from his delirium. 



94 



The Romantic Dramas of Garcia Gutierrez 

Ferrando: The troubadour! 

Guzman: He himself; he was in the garden. 
There/ said Don Nuno in dreadful tones, 'she must 
be also.' And, raging, he descended the stair. The 
night was very dark; the singer, who never struck 
his lute more inopportunely, withdrew, doubtless be- 
lieving that my master was some curious squire; in 
a little while the virtuous Leonor came down, and, 
mistaking my master for her lover, led him silently 
to the most secluded part of the garden. Very 
quickly the daring words of the Count made her 
realize with whom she was conversing; the moon, 
until then prudently covered with a very dense 
cloud, made the jealous singer's steel gleam at my 
master's breast; the fight was short; the Count's 
sword fell at his rival's feet, and a moment later 
there was not a soul in all the garden." 

The endings of the acts are excellent. Act I closes 
with the departure of Manrique and Don Nuno 
for the duelling ground. Each of the acts follows 
this general plan, completing its own episode in the 
drama but leaving the spectator anxious to see what 
is to follow. Acts II and III end in much excite- 
ment, and are melodramatic in effect, but they are 
well conceived to create further interest. In Act II, 
sc. 8, just as the Count's servants are about to seize 
Leonor in the church, they see the troubadour, and 
flee; as Leonor passes him, Manrique lifts his visor. 
She, who had also thought him dead, falls fainting 
at his feet. It is not until scene 4 of the next act 



95 



First Dramatic Attempts and "El Trovador" 

that we see Leonor again and find that she has 
really entered the convent, where, however, she can- 
not forget Manrique. 

Act III ends with the flight of Leonor and Man- 
rique. Nufio and Guillen pursue them; Leonor 
distinguishes their standards in the distance. Finally 
they approach; the curtain falls as Manrique, de- 
fending Leonor, cuts a path for them through the 
ranks of his enemies. The effect is heightened by 
the torches of the soldiers and the ringing of the 
alarm bell in Saragossa. 

The fourth act ends more calmly, but also with 
suppressed excitement. The clarion calls as Man- 
rique is bidding farewell to Leonor; he departs, and 
as she is lamenting his going, the clarion sounds 
again. She closes the act with the words 

jGran Dios! Protege su vida, 
Te lo pido por tu amor. 

The last scene (sc. 9) of the last act is pure 
melodrama. The catastrophe is blood-curdling 
enough to be worthy of the elder Dumas. Leonor 
dies of poison; Azucena, deciding too late that she 
cannot sacrifice Manrique to avenge her mother, is 
forced to see him beheaded; she screams, and in- 
forms Nufio of his relationship to the dead trouba- 
dour, and after his curse: 

jMi hermano, maldicion! 

she cries bitterly: 

jYa estas vengada! 

96 



The Romantic Dramas of Garcia Gutierrez 

and dies. There is nothing to soften the violence 
of the scene except that Manrique's execution does 
not take place on the stage. The scene, with all 
its violence, has the merit of brevity; the agony is 
not prolonged and the whole is decidedly effective. 
The most happily conceived and felicitously ex- 
pressed scenes in the whole play are scenes six, 
seven and eight of the second act. The author gives 
careful directions for the stage setting: 

"At the back of the stage there will be seen the 
grating of the reception room in a convent; three 
doors, one beside the grating, which connects with 
the interior of the convent; another on the right, 
which leads to the church, and the third on the left, 
which is supposed to be the street entrance. 

"Nuns are seen in the reception room; the door 
beside the grating opens, and Leonor appears, lean- 
ing on the arm of Jimena; a few monks and nuns 
accompany them." 

Then Leonor bids farewell to Jimena, confessing 
that she is about to make a false vow, for the trou- 
badour still fills her thoughts. All go into the church ; 
Manrique and Ruiz enter; Manrique shows his 
understanding of Leonor's action; a false report of 
his death had been spread and he perceives she had 
resolved to take the veil so as to escape the per- 
secution of her brother and the Count. Ruiz goes 
out, and Nufio's servants, sent to seize Leonor, enter. 
The chanting of the choir is heard as the proces- 
sion crosses from the church to the convent, and 
the chant continues throughout the scene (now 



97 



First Dramatic Attempts and "EI Trovador" 

known as the "Miserere scene"). The act ends as 
described above with the recognition of Manrique 
by Leonor, her swooning at his feet, and the flight 
of Nuiio's servants. 

These scenes could hardly be improved upon. 
They are short, contain nothing superfluous, are ex- 
tremely moving, and gain a dignity and solemnity 
from their religious surroundings and from the off- 
stage chanting. They have remained, and justly, 
the most popular portion of Garcia Gutierrez's most 
popular drama. 

It has often been pointed out that there has 
seldom been a drama which could so easily be 
turned into an opera; Pineyro says (op. cit.\ p. 101) 
"One might say that Garcia Gutierrez wrote his 
poem foreseeing that it would be set to music, and 
facilitating beforehand the task of the composer." 
The libretto of // Trovatore was written in 1851 by 
Salvatore Cammarano. Verdi began work on the 
score in the same year, but the opera did not attain 
production until the first part of 1853. The first 
scene of the third act of El trovador is opened with 
a song, that of Azucena. Manrique announces his 
coming in scene 4 of the same act with the singing 
of a ballad. The whole piece, in which passion plays 
a predominant part, is especially well adapted to 
musical expression. 

The variety of metre in El trovador is greater than 
in the theatre of the Golden Age, which in turn was 
far greater than in the French Classic theatre. But 



98 



The Romantic Dramas of Garcia Gutierrez 

this freedom was not original with Garcia Gutierrez, 
for the Duke of Rivas' Don Alvaro, also written 
partly in prose and partly in verse, was fully as free 
in the matter of versification. The author of El tro- 
vador is much the better technician, for the verse 
of his play is uniformly well constructed and mel- 
lifluous, while that of Don Alvaro is uneven, at times 
decidedly lame. 

Indeed, the peculiar merit of Garcia Gutierrez 
consists precisely in his ability as a dramatic poet. 
In all the metres which he employs he seems 
thoroughly at home; no effort is apparent, and his 
verse seems a natural and harmonious expression of 
his ideas. It is elegant in its simplicity, a model of 
felicity. In narrative passages it is vigorous and 
moves rapidly; in lyric passages, of which the play 
is full, it is tender, delicate, moving, free from exag- 
gerated sentimentality. It is always direct; the 
desired emotion is never buried beneath obscure 
figures of speech. 

Take for example the lament of Leonor in scene 3 
of the first act: 

Llorando, si; 
Yo para llorar naci; 
Mi negra estrella enemiga, 
Mi suerte lo quiere asi. 
Despreciada, aborrecida 
Del que amante idolatre 
<iQue es ya para mi la vida? 

99 



First Dramatic Attempts and "El Trovador" 

or in sc. 4: 

Si, pero juzgue enganada 

Que eras tu; con voz pausada 

Can tar una trova oi. 

Era tu voz, tu laud; 

Era el canto seductor 

De un amante trovador, 

Lleno de tierna inquietud. 

Turbada, perdi mi calma, 

Se estremecio el corazon, 

Y una celeste ilusion 

Me abraso de amor el alma. 

About such verse there hovers a youthful vigor 
and freshness which enhances the emotions expressed. 
It is excellent art because this emotion is conveyed 
to us directly and we are scarcely conscious of the 
medium by which it is expressed. Further excellent 
eaxmples are offered by Act II, sc. 6; Act III, sc. 4 
and 5; Act IV, sc. 6 and 9. 

Probably the most pathetic passage of the drama 
is the lament of Manrique over the death of Leo- 
nor (Act V, sc. 7) : 

A morir dispuesto estoy. . . 
Mas no; esperad un instante; 
A contemplar su semblante. 
A adorarla otra vez voy. 
Aqui esta. Dadme el laud; 
En trova triste y llorosa, 
En endecha lastimosa 
Os contare su virtud. 
Una corona de flores 
Dadme tambien; en su frente 

100 



The Romantic Dramas of Garcia Gutierrez 

Sera aureola luciente, 
Sera diadema de amores. 
Dadme, vereisla brillar 
En su f rente hermosa y pura; 
Mas llorad su desventura 
Como a mi me veis llorar. 
jQue funesto resplandor! 
(j Tan pronto vienen por mi? 
El verdugo es aquel. . . Si ; 
Tiene el rostro de traidor. 

Manrique's emotion is thus made to seem sincere, 
poignant, a real expression of feeling rather than a 
declamatory outburst. The passage is short, and 
does not interfere with the rapidity of the action, 
merely lending it a dignity and an emotional back- 
ground which heightens the effect. 

High praise is bestowed on the author by the com- 
petent Cuban critic, Enrique Pineyro (op. cit. y 
p. 102): 

"Garcia Gutierrez's precious gift. . . is his gift for 
versification, which is constantly facile, sweet, melo- 
dious. The union of this gift with the natural 
melancholy of his character and the instinctive sad- 
ness of his poetry made him naturally the most 
moving, the most affecting, the most pathetic of 
the modern dramatic poets of Spain. It is quite pos- 
sible that at no time has there existed anyone in 
the literature of Spain who deserves to be compared 
with him in this regard." 



101 



CHAPTER IV. 

Romantic Plays Subsequent to 
El Trovador. 

Since El trovador won such laurels, it was but 
natural that its author should seek further success 
along similar lines. His next play was entitled El 
paje. We have endeavored to point out the influences 
operative upon Garcia Gutierrez in writing El tro- 
vador; the same influences remained potent when 
he wrote El paje and the other plays of the seven 
years up to and including Simon Bocanegra, the 
author's next outstanding success. 

El paje was represented in Madrid at the Teatro 
del Principe on May 22, 1837, slightly more than 
a year after El trovador. It is in four acts, as are 
the Macias (1835) of Larra and Los amantes de 
Teruel (1837) of Hartzenbusch. The Duke of Ri- 
vas' Don Alvaro (1835) and Martinez de la Rosa's 
La conjuracion de Venecia (1834), as well as Gar- 
cia Gutierrez's El trovador (1836) each had five 
acts, the number regularly used by Hugo and Du- 
mas. The unities of time and place are disregarded, 



103 



Romantic Plays Subsequent to "El Trovador" 

for the action is supposed to begin March 20, 1369 
and to continue for several days, and the scene 
changes from Cordova to Seville. 

The page who is the protagonist is a boy of 
fifteen named Ferrando. Despite his tender age he 
is high-spirited to the last degree; when we first see 
him he is quarreling at cards with a much older 
man and is about to challenge him to a duel, when 
his wrath is assuaged by Leonor, the sister of Dona 
Blanca. Blanca, whom Ferrando serves as page, is 
the wife of the elderly and proud Don Martin de 
Sandoval. Ferrando confesses to Leonor that he is 
deeply in love; the object of his passion is even 
fairer and better than Leonor, for Leonor, he admits, 
is only an angel, while his beloved is a goddess. 

When Ferrando makes his exit, Blanca enters and 
talks with Leonor. From their conversation we learn 
that in days gone by Blanca had had a lover, Ro- 
drigo, to whom she had borne a son fifteen years 
ago and had shortly afterward been forced to part 
with both lover and child. She has recently seen Ro- 
drigo and fears he may cause her trouble. Rodrigo 
is not long in making his appearance; he still loves 
Blanca and wishes her to flee with him. She tries 
to remain faithful to her husband Martin and bids 
Rodrigo leave her. He says: 

Rodrigo: <±Vos lo quereis? Adios, senora; 

■ Adios eternamente! Y si a tu oido 
Llega mi muerte, por mi muerte llora. 

He does not quite mean it, however, for he pauses on 
the threshold to ask her if there is really nothing 
which she would like to ask him. Overcome with 
emotion, she enquires about their child and finally 
confesses her love for Rodrigo. The latter states 

1 04 



The Romantic Dramas of Garcia Gutierrez 

that he has lost trace of the child, whom he was 
forced to abandon years ago and whom he had 
entrusted to a fisherman in Seville, leaving with 
him a sword as a means of identification. 

Enter don Martin, to whom Rodrigo explains his 
presence by offering letters supposedly from Mar- 
tin's brother. But Martin's old servant Bermudo 
recognizes Rodrigo as Blanca's lover and informs 
Martin of their former relations. 

In the second act Leonor goes to Rodrigo's inn 
with a letter from Blanca urging him not to try 
to see her again. As he is preparing to disobey her, 
Bermudo enters and, pretending to wish to further 
Rodrigo's plans, gives him the key to Blanca's 
oratory, where she is always to be found at the 
hour of evening prayer. 

At vesper time Ferrando is pouring forth his 
hopeless love for Blanca in a passionate lay when 
Rodrigo enters the oratory. Rodrigo and Blanca 
are immediately betrayed to Martin by Bermudo. 

Bermudo: ;Vedlos! 

Dona Blanca: ;Piedad! 

Don Martin: ;No hay piedad! 

Don Rodrigo: ;Pidela a Dios para ti! 

Act III opens with a chance encounter between 
Rodrigo and Nuno, the fisherman to whom he had 
entrusted his son. Nuno had been forced to abandon 
him thirteen years before, but left with him the 
sword by means of which he even now thinks he 
may be able to discover him. 

Ferrando receives a mysterious letter from the 
man he had always regarded as his father, inform- 
ing him that he is a foundling. 

Martin is lying ill from wounds inflicted on him 
by Rodrigo. Blanca is preparing to fly with Ro- 

105 



Romantic Plays Subsequent to "El Trovador" 

drigo to Seville. Ferrando finally musters up suf- 
ficient courage to declare to Blanca his love for 
her. She encourages him and bids him show his 
love by murdering Martin. He hesitates, but finally 
consents. Martin's death-cry is heard; Ferrando 
comes out in time to see Blanca flee with Rodrigo. 
In the fourth act Nuno finds Ferrando, recognizes 
the sword which he wears and informs him that he 
is Rodrigo's son. Ferrando therefore resolves to rid 
his father of so treacherous and wicked a woman 
as Blanca, and makes his way to the house which 
they are to occupy in Seville. Hiding in their bed- 
room, he awaits Blanca and upon her arrival accuses 
her of her crimes, bidding her prepare to die. On 
his proclaiming himself the son of Rodrigo, she cries 
that she is his mother; but too late, for Ferrando 
has already swallowed a slow poison which now 
begins to take effect. Just before his death, Rodri- 
go enters; he condemns Blanca as the cause of the 
tragedy and declares that they can never be happy 
together. His final words are: 

Tii una maldicion pusiste 
Y una tumba entre los dos. 
This play is constructed so completely on the 
plan of the French Romanticists that we shall find 
it convenient to discuss it in connection with a play 
of the elder Dumas which it resembles more than 
superficially and which was translated by Garcia 
Gutierrez for the Spanish stage in 1836. This play 
is La Tour de Nesle (called in Spanish Margarita 
de Borgona) and was first represented at the Porte 
Saint-Martin in 1832. It is in five acts and in prose; 
the action is placed in Paris in 1314. Larra wrote 

106 



The Romantic Dramas of Garcia Gutierrez 

a condemnatory review of the play just after its 
first presentation in Madrid. 35 

Act I. Philippe d'Aulnay. — Tableau I. Philippe 
d'Aulnay is writing in a tavern kept by the Italian 
Orsini. Philippe is a young soldier just arrived from 
Flanders who hopes to win preferment at court 
through the influence of his brother Gaultier, the 
favorite of Marguerite of Burgundy. A crowd of 
the habitues of the tavern begin in loud voices to 
revile Gaultier, and Philippe is quick to draw his 
sword against all ten of them. He is hard pressed. 
Buridan, a captain recently arrived from Italy, 
chances to enter the tavern and comes to his aid. 
The ruffians are quickly routed. Philippe and 
Buridan fall to talking of recent occurrences in 
Paris. Rumors are afloat of strange happenings near 
the Tour de Nesle; every morning dead men have 
been found in the Seine below the tower. Philippe 
informs Buridan that he has a rendez-vous for the 
evening; an old woman gave him a ring and told 
him to be at the corner of the rue Froid-Mantel at 
curfew; from there he would be conducted into the 
presence of a most beautiful and charming young 
woman. While Philippe and Buridan are still talking 
the old woman brings Buridan a ring with the same 
message. They decide to keep the appointment 
together. 

Gaultier d'Aulnay arrives and greets his brother 
affectionately. Upon hearing of the strange rendez- 
vous, he strongly urges Philippe and Buridan not 
to keep it. Philippe agrees to meet his brother in 
the morning. 

Tableau II. (At the Tour de Nesle. The same 



36 See Larra, Obras, Caracas, 1839, vol. II, pp. 97 ft. 
107 



Romantic Plays Subsequent to "El Trovador" 

night.) Orsini, who is really in the employ of 
Marguerite of Burgundy, soliloquizes on the beauty 
of the night for love. Marguerite enters and talks 
with him about her gallant for the night. The young 
man, says she, is so much like Gaultier d'Aulnay 
that she wishes his life to be spared, for she has 
not unmasked and there is no danger of her being 
recognized. 

As Orsini departs, Philippe enters and makes 
ardent love to Marguerite. When she bids him go 
and refuses to unmask or to reveal her identity, 
he scratches the skin under her mask with a golden 
pin. Enraged, she goes off to countermand her 
order to Orsini. 

Buridan appears and tells Philippe he is sure their 
entertainers are of high lineage and that the affair 
bodes ill, for he realizes that they are in the dreadful 
Tour de Nesle. They then agree that if either sur- 
vives he will avenge the other's death. Philippe 
draws blood with the golden pin, writes "I was 
assassinated by . . . .," signs and gives the paper to 
Buridan. As Buridan endeavors to make his way 
out of the tower, he is accosted by a man named 
Landry, who bids him say his prayers. Buridan 
recognizes Landry, w 7 ho had served under him in 
Italy; Landry therefore spares him and shows him 
a secret window over the Seine. Buridan shouts and 
plunges into the river. Philippe is stabbed; before 
dying he staggers into Marguerite's presence and 
recognizes her. The act closes with the night-crier's 
words, "ID est trois heures. Tout est tranquille. 
Parisiens, dormez." 

Act II. Marguerite de Bourgogne. — Tableau III. 
Gaultier d'Aulnay sees Marguerite in the morning 
and laments the fact that the coming of the king 

108 



The Romantic Dramas of Garcia Gutierrez 

on the morrow will separate them forever. While 
various courtiers discuss the discontent aroused by 
the finding of the bodies of so many young nobles 
near the Tour de Nesle, a Gipsy enters the court 
and prophesies the death of the present Prime Min- 
ister. Talking with Marguerite alone, he reveals 
knowledge of the doings of the night before, tells 
her of Philippe's death and shows her the golden 
pin. He thereby frightens her into promising him 
an interview at curfew in Orsini's tavern. Gaul tier 
d'Aulnay swears to avenge his brother's death. 

Tableau IV. Philippe's last message, declaring 
Marguerite to be his murderer, has been sent by 
Buridan to Gaultier d'Aulnay, who has promised 
not to open it until the morrow and to return it un- 
opened if Buridan sends for it before then. Buridan 
sees Marguerite at Orsini's tavern, tells her he was 
the Gipsy who came to her court that morning and 
shows her that he knows her secrets. Realizing her 
genuine love for Gaultier, he swears to let him open 
the paper proving her guilty of Philippe's death 
unless she orders the immediate arrest of the Prime 
Minister, Enquerrand de Marigny, and puts Buridan 
in his place. After Buridan departs with her promise, 
Gaultier happens to come to the tavern, and Mar- 
guerite finally persuades him to give her the mys- 
terious paper which he has received. She tears out 
her name and gives it back to him. 

Act III. Enquerrand de Marigny. — Tableau V. 
The Prime Minister Enquerrand de Marigny is ar- 
rested through Buridan's machinations. Marguerite 
also has Buridan apprehended and thrown into the 
Grand Chatelet. 

Tableau VI. Buridan's jailor is his former soldier 
Landry. Buridan wins Landry's promise to go to 

109 



Romantic Plays Subsequent to "El Trovador" 

Buridan's lodgings and to get a certain box under 
a flagstone and give it to King' Louis X if Buridan 
is not on hand to claim it the next day. Marguerite 
comes to the Chatelet to gloat over her prisoner. 
Buridan reveals himself to her as Lyonnet de Bour- 
nonville, her former page and lover in Burgundy. 
They had had two children. Before the twins were 
born, Marguerite's father, Duke Robert, had dis- 
covered her condition and was about to send her 
to a nunnery, when he was murdered, at Margue- 
rite's suggestion, by Buridan. She had given the 
children to Orsini with orders to kill them; instead, 
he had given them to Landry. Marguerite promises 
to have Enquerrand de Marigny executed and to 
make Buridan Prime Minister in his place. 

Act IV. Buridan. — Tableau VII. Buridan, as 
Prime Minister, has ridden at the King's left on 
his triumphal entry into Paris. Gaultier has received 
orders to take command of the army in Champagne. 
Marigny has been executed. 

Buridan has a rendez-vous with Marguerite for 
the evening at the Tour de Nesle. She will there 
receive her incriminating letters to him, and his love. 
Thinking she has him trapped, she gives Orsini 
orders for one last murder. Then she will tear down 
the tower and erect in its place a convent where 
prayers will be said for the souls of herself and 
Orsini. 

Buridan gives Gaultier the key to the Tour de 
Nesle and turns the rendez-vous over to him, after 
telling him that he, Buridan, was Marguerite's ac- 
cepted lover, showing him her letters and telling 
him it was she who murdered Philippe. Buridan 
has given orders under the King's seal for the arrest 
of all persons found in the Tour of Nesle. 

no 



The Romantic Dramas of Garcia Gutierrez 

Act V. Gaultier d'Aulnay. — Tableau VIII. In 
a conversation with Landry, Buridan is told that 
his children had been abandoned, marked with a 
cross on the left arm. Buridan knows that both 
Philippe and Gaultier bear such marks. Realizing 
the fate awaiting Gaultier he hastens by boat to the 
Tour de Nesle, so as to anticipate the arrival of 
Gaultier who has gone on foot. 

Tableau IX. The Tour de Nesle. Buridan enters 
the tower through a window and reveals to Mar- 
guerite the identity of Philippe and Gaultier. She 
swears that Gaultier has never been her lover and 
prays God for mercy. A cry of anguish is heard; it 
is the death-agony of Gaultier, murdered by Orsini; 
the door is locked. When the door, which had been 
locked, is opened, Gaultier staggers in with gaping 
wounds in time to hear Marguerite exclaim: "Mal- 
heureux, malheureux, je suis ta mere." His reply 
is "Ma mere? Eh bien, ma mere, soyez maudite!" 
He then falls at her feet. The High Sheriff enters 
and arrests all present. His comment is: "Ici il n'y 
a ni reine ni premier ministre; il y a un cadavre, 
deux assassins, et Fordre signe de la main du roi 
d'arreter cette nuit, quels qu'ils soient, ceux que 
je trouverai dans la Tour de Nesle." 

El paje and La Tour de Nesle have this in com- 
mon, that they are representative of the Romantic 
melodrama in its extreme form. There is no develop- 
ment of characters in either play, but merely a series 
of breathless incidents. The interest depends solely 
upon the plot, the action of the plays, which certain- 
ly do not appeal to the spectator's intelligence, nor 
indeed to his emotions, but rather to his nerves. In 



ill 



Romantic Plays Subsequent to "El Trovador" 

both, a predilection for the terrible is conspicuous. 
Parricide and incest, assassination and adultery, are 
the commonplaces of such works. The individuality 
of the protagonists is carried to such an extent that 
they seem quite devoid of any sort of moral sense. 
Marguerite and Buridan, who have been ardent 
lovers, cheerfully plan each other's murder; Ferran- 
do has but slight hesitancy in murdering Don Mar- 
tin at Dona Blanca's request, and she has but few 
qualms at causing the murder so that she may more 
easily flee with her lover Rodrigo. 

Moreover certain situations in the two plays are 
more than superficially similar. In each case the 
hero and heroine had been in illicit relations from 
which children resulted ; in each case the heroine had 
later married a man of high rank from whom her 
past must by all means be concealed. In both plays 
the lover returns, and the rest of the action after 
his return hinges on his relations with his former 
mistress, the heroine of the play. In both plays the 
hero commits murder to further the designs of the 
heroine. In El paje, Ferrando falls in love with 
Blanca, who is later discovered to be his mother 
and who is the cause of his death. In La Tour de 
Nesle, both Gaultier and Philippe fall in love with 
their mother, Marguerite; her identity is not dis- 
covered until after she has caused the death of both 
of them. These sudden discoveries of kinship were 
favorite devices of the Romanticists, and we have 
already seen the same thing in Martinez de la Ro- 



1 12 



The Romantic Dramas of Garcia Gutierrez 

sa's La con jut acton de Venecia, in Pacheco's Alfredo, 
and in Garcia Gutierrez's El trovador. 

Certain corresponding scenes of the two plays are 
similar even in their wording. Compare for example 
El paje, Act III, sc. 3 with La Tour de Nesle, 
Sixieme Tableau, sc. 5. In the former play Rodrigo 
has discovered Nufio, to whom he had entrusted 
his infant son fifteen years before; in the latter, 
Buridan has found Orsini, to whom his two sons 
had been given. 



El paje 

Nuno: El nino me dio 
lastima, porque temblaba de 
frio y era hermoso como un 
sol. Le cobije con mi gaban, 
y le lleve a una buena duefia 
para que le criase. . . asi pa- 
saron dos anos. 

Rodrigo: <;Y que hiciste 
del nino al cabo de ese 
tiempo? 

Nuno: El dinero se habia 
agotado; yo.no podia darle 
de comer, y le abandone a 
su suerte. 

Rodrigo: Nuno, es preciso 
que indagues su paradero, te 
volveras conmigo a Sevilla, y 
yo te prometo darte cuanto 
pueda lisonjear tu ambicion. 
Yo soy rico. . . j oh ! busca- 
me a mi hijo, y cuando vuel- 
vas con el, te colmare de oro. 

The murder of Blanca's husband Martin cor- 
responds closely to the killing of Marguerite's 



La Tour de Nesle 

Orsini: Ah! Pardon, mon- 
seigneur, pardon de ne les 
avoir pas fait mourir, com- 
me on me Tavait ordonne. . . 
Pardon si je n'en ai pas eu le 
courage ; c'etaient deux fils si 
faibles et si beaux!. . . 
malheureux? 

Buridan: Qu'en as-tu fait, 

Orsini: Je les ai donnes, 
pour les exposer, a un de mes 
hommes. . . 

Buridan: C'est bien, Orsi- 
ni. . . Oh ! tu auras de Tor 
ce que pesaient ces enfants; 
deux garcons, n'est ce pas? 
O mes enfants! mes enfants! 



1 13 



Romantic Plays Subsequent to "El Trovador" 

father. In La Tour de Nesle (Sixieme Tableau, 
sc. 5) Buridan narrates how Marguerite had urged 
him to the deed: 

Elle (Marguerite) tenait un poignard comme tu 
en tiens un, la jeune Marguerite, et elle disait 
"Lyonnet, Lyonnet, si, d'ici a demain, mourait mon 
pere, il n'y aurait plus de couvent, il n'y aurait plus 
de separation, il n'y aurait que de Pamour." Je ne 
sais comment cela se fit, mais le poignard passa de 
ses mains dans celles de Lyonnet de Bournonville; 
un bras le prit, le conduisit dans P ombre, le guida 
comme a travers les detours de Penfer, souleva un 
rideau, et le page arme et le due endormi se trou- 
verent en face Tun de Pautre. C'etait une noble 
tete de vieillard, calme et belle, que Passassin a 
revue bien des fois dans ses reves; car il Passassina, 
Pinfame! 

In El paje, the murder of Martin is thus ac- 
complished (Act III, sc. 8): 

Blanca: <;Lo escuchas? Te adoro 

Y me separan de ti. 

<;Por que no acalla la muerte 

Ese grito aterrador? 
Ferrando: ;Tii me amas! 
Blanca: <jTienes valor? 

Esta en tu mano mi suerte. 
Ferrando: Vida y alma tuyas son. 
Blanca: No es tu vida lo que quiero. . . 

<:Que digo? Clava ese acero, 
(Sacando el punal del paje y poniendolo en su mano.) 

Clavalo en mi corazon. 
Ferrando: ;Tu morir! 
Blanca: ;No, no, que es el! 

1 14 



The Romantic Dramas of Garcia Gutierrez 

jEl morir debe, inhumane* ! 
El acero estd en tu mano, 
Y en ese lecho. . . 

Ferrando hesitates, but at last exclaims: 

Perdoname tu, Sefior; 

Que el angel malo ha vencido. 

and murders Martin. 

The most important role in these two plays, as 
in so many Romantic dramas, belongs to the God- 
dess of Chance. It is more than a little strange 
that Ferrando, a nameless youth, should happen to 
become the page of his own mother, that he should 
happen to fall in love with her, that Rodrigo should 
happen to find an obscure boatman who had by 
chance returned to Seville only the day before, that 
Ferrando should take poison before rather than after 
telling Blanca that Rodrigo was his father. Any 
break in this line of fortuitous circumstances would 
have spoiled the whole plot. In La Tour de Nesle 
we have much the same thing. Suppose, for ex- 
ample, that Marguerite had not happened to write, 
sign and send to Buridan, as no clever woman would 
have done, a letter revealing her guilt in having her 
father murdered, the intrigue would become null 
and void. It may be said in Garcia Gutierrez's favor 
that in his later works, and notably in Juan Lo- 
renzo, the long arm of coincidence is by no means 
subjected to such violent wrenchings. El paje was 
written when the author was still in his early 



115 



Romantic Plays Subsequent to "El Trovador" 

twenties, and it is an example of his most sub- 
servient adherence to Dumaesque methods. 

In the same year (1837) Garcia Gutierrez wrote 
a drama entitled Magdalena, which differs consider- 
ably from his preceding works. In the first place, 
the action is supposed to be contemporary. In the 
second place, the play is not a Romantic drama but 
a drome bourgeois. It was considered immoral by 
the Junta de Lectura and was never played. 36 The 
story is that of the faithless lover who repents just 
too late. Magdalena has been the mistress of Carlos, 
to whom she bears a son. Carlos tires of Magda- 
lena and marries a marchioness, but on the morning 
of his wedding he happens to meet Magdalena, and 
the next day has a long talk with her. When he 
leaves her room, he is accosted by Magdalena's 
brother, who challenges him to a duel and kills 
him. Magdalena thereupon finds Carlos' will, leav- 
ing all his possessions to her and to their infant 
daughter. 

Magdalena lacks the illusion of times past, the 
splendor of the feudal age, and there is no glamour 
thrown around the characters to make them in- 
teresting. The play is much weaker than El tro- 
vador — not nearly so vigorous, colorful and spon- 
taneous. We may remark in passing that it must 
have been a strange censorship which suppressed 



36 Blanco Garcia, op. cit., vol. i, p. 224. 
1 16 






The Romantic Dramas of Garcia Gutierrez 

Magdalena and allowed La Tour de Nesle to be 
presented. 

The play produced in 1837 under the title of 
El sitio de Bilbao, which is ascribed by Hartzen- 
busch 37 to Garcia Gutierrez, is a declamatory drama 
in two acts, in verse and prose, and cannot properly 
be classified as Romantic. It is an effort to utilize 
the Carlist war as a subject for drama and deals 
with the siege of Bilbao in 1836. The whole play 
is a glorification of Espartero. 

La pandilla, o la election de un diputado is said 
on the title-page to be a translation from Scribe, 
but the Spanish title hardly gives an immediate 
clue to the French one. The play in question is the 
one which Scribe entitled La camaraderie, on la 
courte-echelle, and which was presented in Paris in 
January, 1837, and had its Spanish presentation 
later in the same year. It is in five acts and in 
prose. It is quite typical of Scribe, for it contains 
a complicated plot, an abundance of cleverly ma- 
nipulated situations and a series of hastily sketched 
characters. The play contains one passage which is 
of especial interest because it shows Scribe's attitude 
toward certain phases of the Romantic movement: 

Oscar: Tu ne sais pas?. . . J'ai fait un livre de 
poesies. 

Edmond: Toi! 

Oscar: Comme tout le monde!... Cela m'est 



37 Obras escogidas de Don Antonio Garcia Gutierrez, pre- 
face, p. xxiii. 



117 



Romantic Plays Subsequent to "El Trovador" 

venu un matin en dejeunant. Le Catafalque, oil 
poesies funeraires d'Oscar Rigaut. 

Edmond: Toi?. . . un gros gargon rejoui! 

Oscar: Oui, je me suis mis dans le funeraire,. . . 
il n'y avait que cette partie-la, tout le reste etant 
pris par nos amis; des beaux. . . des gants jaunes 
de la litterature, genies createurs ayant tout invente; 
et ga aurait fait double emploi si nous avions tous 
cree le meme genre. Aussi je leur ai laisse le va- 
poureux, le moy en-age, le pittoresque; et j'ai in- 
vente le funebre, le cadavereux, et j'y fais fureur. 

It must have seemed a little disconcerting to Gar- 
cia Gutierrez that he should be translating for 
presentation on the Madrid stage this brief satire 
of the sort of work he was producing; for "le moyen- 
age" and "le pittoresque" are much in evidence in 
his plays. His very next play, El rey monje (1837), 
has its scene laid in Aragon in the twelth century. 
It is a Romantic historical drama in five acts and 
in verse, and contains some of its author's best 
poetry. 

The hero of the play is the Monk King Ramiro, 
who actually reigned in Aragon from 1134 to 1137. 38 
The veritable history of the period, however, is not 
followed, historical events being bent to suit the 
exigencies of the drama. 

Ramiro greatly regrets that he is destined to be 
a monk, for he is in love with Isabel, the daughter 
of Don Ferriz Maza de Lizana. While visiting her 
in her apartments, he is discovered by her father 



a 8 Cf. M. A. S. Hume, The Spanish People, New York, 
1909, p. 136. 

118 



The Romantic Dramas of Garcia Gutierrez 

and flees. Don Ferriz pretends that his daughter 
is dead. 

Ramiro becomes Archbishop of Roda, but on the 
death of his brother Alfonso of Aragon he accepts 
the throne. Later he discovers a conspiracy against 
him headed by Don Ferriz. The conspirators are all 
executed. Don Ferriz is beheaded just as Isabel 
arrives upon the scene to plead for his life. For a 
brief instant Don Ramiro hears her voice and then 
goes back to his royal duties. 

The last act shows Ramiro in his old age; he 
has abandoned all worldly ambitions and cares, and 
has entered a monastery. To his confessional there 
comes a woman in black; from her story he recog- 
nizes her as Isabel. He tells her that his acts put 
an impassable barrier between them, and that they 
must forget the loves of their youth. Their con- 
versation is interrupted by the entrance of Isabel's 
brother Alfonso, who has for years been seeking to 
wreak vengeance on Ramiro. Now, however, he is 
too late, for Ramiro sinks and dies as he arrives. 

This play is typically Romantic in its background, 
its atmosphere and its style, but Ramiro is by no 
means preeminently the Romantic hero; he is not, 
like Don Alvaro or Hernani, ready to brave all 
dangers and to give up all else for his love. More- 
over, the whole play is rather a series of episodes 
in the career of the principal character than a 
dramatic treatment of any one of them. It gives 
the impression of being rather loosely put together. 
The play proceeds not toward a dramatic climax or 
solution but comes merely to a close. Such was not 
the method of Hugo and Dumas. When they wrote 



1 19 



Romantic Plays Subsequent to "El Trovador" 

historical plays, they chose some distinctive crisis 
in the life of the historic personage or some one 
startling event of his time. In Hugo's Marie Tudor, 
for instance, the interest of the play depends upon 
the love affairs of Gilbert and Lady Jane Grey, and 
upon the infatuation of Queen Alary for Fabiani. 
Xo attempt is made to treat the whole of Mary 
Tudor's career. The play is brought to a satisfactory 
denoument with the execution of Fabiani and the 
rescue of Gilbert. In Dumas' Catherine Howard 
the execution of the heroine by her lover Ethelwood 
furnishes a dramatic solution for a complete drama. 
In El rey monje Ramiro simply falls a victim to 
some mysterious illness at the end of the fifth act 
— and the play is over. 

The verse of El rey monje reaches and maintains 
throughout a high level of excellence. Pineyro says 
of it: "Es el cenit de su carrera de puro y ele- 
gante escritor;. . . nunca supero la fluidez y espon- 
taneidad de forma, que en los dramas de este pe- 
riodo es un encanto perdurable." 39 

Our author's plays of the next four years mark 
no advance in his power and no change in his 
method. They continue to abound in melodramatic 
situations, and the interest aroused comes from the 
events depicted rather than from any analysis of 
motives or careful delineation of character. 

Simon Bocanegra, first represented at the Teatro 



39 Pineyro, op. cit., p. 104. 

1 Z 



The Romantic Dramas of Garcia Gutierrez 

de la Cruz on January 17, 1843, was Garcia Gu- 
tierrez's next great success. It is in four acts, pre- 
ceded by a prologue, and is written entirely in verse. 
The action of the prologue begins at Genoa in the 
year 1338; that of the play proper in the same city 
in 1362. The prologue really contains sufficient 
material for a complete drama in itself, while the 
plot of the play itself is so complicated that it is 
at times difficult to follow. In the operatic form 
given to it by Verdi, Simone Boccanegra has not 
been nearly so successful as II Trovatore. 

In the prologue we learn that Simon Bocanegra, 
a corsair, has just returned from three years' wander- 
ings at sea. A movement is on foot to proclaim 
Simon "Dux" of Genoa. Simon himself is haunted 
by the image of Mariana, a girl of the nobility 
whom he had seduced years before and whom he 
still ardently loves. He goes to Jacobo Fiesco, the 
father of Mariana, and begs to be allowed to marry 
her. Fiesco asks him what has become of the child 
Mariana bore him; Simon confesses his ignorance. 
Entering Fiesco 's house in an attempt to see Ma- 
riana, he finds her on her bier. As Simon leaves 
the house, he hears the people proclaiming him Dux 
of Genoa. 

Act I. Gabriel Adorno is in love with Susana, 
Countess of Grimaldi, and she with him. Susana is 
the ward of a man known as Andrea, who is really 
Jacobo Fiesco in disguise. While Gabriel and Su- 
sana are conversing, a masked man approaches and 
informs them that the Dux of Genoa, Simon Boca- 
negra, is coming to Susana's house that day. Upon 
being questioned by Gabriel, Susana admits that the 

121 



Romantic Plays Subsequent to "El Trovador" 

Dux has exhibited rather too much interest in her, 
but they agree that it will be best for her to see him. 

Simon has shown himself to be a harsh tyrant in 
the twenty-four years of his rule over Genoa, and 
Gabriel's father had been one of his victims. Ga- 
briel and Fiesco are forming a conspiracy to over- 
throw him. Fiesco informs Gabriel that his beloved 
Susana is in reality not the Countess Grimaldi but a 
foundling. Gabriel affirms that he loves her for 
herself alone, and Fiesco promises her to him if the 
conspiracy is successful. 

Bocanegra comes to see Susana and puts into her 
hands a pardon for her supposed brothers the Gri- 
maldis, exiled for political crimes. On his visit to 
Susana Bocanegra is accompanied by Paolo, who 
also is in love with Susana, and when Bocanegra 
leaves the room for a few moments Paolo makes off 
with her. Gabriel accuses Bocanegra of the abduc- 
tion, but the crime is Paolo's own, and Bocanegra 
threatens him with torture unless he reveals Susa- 
na's whereabouts. 

Act II. Susana is entrusted by Paolo to Bu- 
chetto; Simon is brought to Buchetto's house by 
Paolo. Susana tells the Dux that she can remember 
the time when she was not a member of the Gri- 
maldi household and when those around her called 
her Maria. Simon tells her the story of the pro- 
logue, and recognizes her as his own daughter. She 
expresses her affection for him, but agrees that her 
identity be kept secret. She also promises to come 
to Simon's palace. 

Gabriel and Fiesco come to confer with Buchetto 
— who has joined the conspiracy against Simon — 
and finds Susana there. Gabriel is in despair when, 
without giving any reason other than the Dux's 

1 22 



The Romantic Dramas of Garcia Gutierrez 

command, she announces her intention of going to 
Simon's palace. 

Act III. Paolo presses his suit with Susana and 
urges Bocanegra to accord to him her hand. Upon 
being refused he decides to overthrow Simon and 
offers Gabriel and Fiesco an opportunity to kill the 
Dux. Fiesco refuses to use ignoble means, but Ga- 
briel consents to commit the murder. In the palace 
Gabriel sees Susana and urges her to flee with him. 
She will not, and refuses to explain her relations 
with Simon. The latter then enters, and Susana 
hides Gabriel on the balcony. Simon falls asleep in 
his chair, and Gabriel is about to stab him when 
Susana stays his hand. Simon recognizes Gabriel; 
Susana had already informed her father of her love 
for the young man. Bocanegra suspects Susana of 
complicity in this attempt to murder him and in his 
lament refers to the fact that she is his daughter. 
Gabriel exonerates his beloved, and promises to 
defend Simon against the conspirators, who have 
now succeeded in arousing the populace and who 
are clamoring outside the palace. Simon promises 
Gabriel the hand of his daughter. 

Act IV. Gabriel quiets the people, but Paolo, by 
dwelling on Mariana's shame, has roused Fiesco to 
a point of frenzy. He agrees to aid in poisoning 
Simon. They drug the cup in which Simon is to 
drink happiness to Gabriel. Fiesco meets Simon 
and is recognized by him as the father of Mariana. 
Begging Fiesco's forgiveness, he receives pardon just 
as the poison begins to take effect upon him. With 
his last breath he blesses Gabriel and Susana, and 
proclaims Gabriel Dux of Genoa. 

The situations of the play are ingeniously contrived 
and effectively written. The characters are much 



123 



Romantic Plays Subsequent to "El Trovador" 

more clearly outlined than in the plays before this 
date. Bocanegra, for example, is a distinct indi- 
vidual and not a mere personification of an abstract 
quality; his harshness is softened by an enduring 
love for Mariana and for his daughter Susana. 
Though he has been a severe ruler, he is capable 
of magnanimity, as evidenced by his forgiveness 
of Gabriel. He is a combination of good and bad 
elements, a real person, and not a dramatic puppet 
such as the incarnate ambition which stalks through 
the scenes of La Tour de Nesle under the name of 
Buridan. The character of Susana is even more 
delicately portrayed. She is tender and loving to- 
ward her father Simon and her lover Gabriel; re- 
solute in dealing with her affairs (Act I, sc. 4), 
prudent in keeping her father's secrets (Act III, 
sc. 6), and always dignified and reserved. She is 
a more artistic creation than Leonor of El tro- 
vador. She and Bernarda of Juan Lorenzo stand 
preeminent among the personages of Garcia Gutie- 
rrez's stage. 

None of the dramas following Simon Bocanegra 
attains that play's standard of excellence until Ven- 
ganza Catalana (1864). These twenty-one years saw 7 
only nine original plays which the author describes 
as "dramas." He began to write comedies and zar- 
zuelas, which brought him more financial gain if 
less literary glory. During this time he produced 
no less than twelve zarzuelas, in addition to eight 
original comedies and five translations. The dramas 



124 



The Romantic Dramas of Garcia Gutierrez 

show no change in method and no improvement in 
style. The comedies are weak in plot and none of 
them approaches the standard of his better dramas. 
Very early, with the writing of El trovador, he dis- 
covered his most successful style and method. It is 
interesting to note that the best of the zarzuelas, 
El grumete, was the first, which appeared in 1853. 
Venganza catalana marks a return to the pattern 
of El trovador and Simon Bocanegra and, like them, 
it met with considerable success. The play is in four 
acts, entirely in verse, and the action is set at 
Adrianople and Apros in the year 1304. A note 
by the author at the end of the play mentions as 
historical authorities the chronicles of Ramon Mun- 
taner and Francisco de Moncada (Muntaner's Chro- 
nica, o descripcio dels jets et hazanyes del Inclyt 
Rey don Jaume, and Moncada's Expedicion de los 
catalanes y aragoneses contra turcos y griegos). 

Maria, princess of Bulgaria, cousin of Miguel Pa- 
leologo, Emperor of Byzantium, is the wife of Roger 
de Flor. Roger is the leader of the Catalonians and 
Aragonese, who have just lent great aid to Miguel. 
Gircon, the leader of Miguel's allies, the Aianos, has 
a son Alejo and two daughters, Irene and Marga- 
rita. Years before, Alejo and Maria had been 
lovers and had sworn eternal faith to each other, 
but time and circumstances had driven them apart. 
Irene has been constantly in love with Roger. Mar- 
garita had been seduced by a man whose name she 
died without confessing, and Alejo has been en- 
deavoring for six years to discover his daughter's 

125 



Romantic Plays Subsequent to "El Trovador" 

betrayer. Gircon informs Alejo, now serving under 
Roger, that he has at last unearthed him. 

Roger reveals to Maria and Alejo the fact that 
he had loved Margarita and had been married to 
her; she had committed suicide because, in his ab- 
sence, she believed herself duped. Alejo rejoices, 
and promises Maria to cherish Roger for her sake. 

Gircon tells Alejo that Roger caused his sister's 
dishonor and calls on him for vengeance. Alejo, 
without revealing his reasons, refuses to intervene. 
Miguel grows suspicious of Roger and his turbulent 
soldiers, and jealous of their power. He invites Ro- 
ger to a banquet, at which Gircon assassinates him. 

In a battle between the followers of Roger, now 
led by Berenguer, and those of Miguel, the Cata- 
lonians and Aragonese take dire vengeance on the 
Greeks, so that Roger's "coffin may swim in blood." 
Maria reports the battle from the ramparts of Apros. 
Her concluding words are: 

Vencido el Oriente, nombra 
con miedo al aragones. 
Llorando queda, y manana, 
aun despues de enjuto el llanto 
recordara con espanto 
la venganza catalana. 

This play recalls the freshness, vigor and spon- 
taneity of Garcia Gutierrez's earlier work. Vengan- 
za catalana is a historical play rendered melodra- 
matic by the addition of love episodes. Decidedly 
it is a Romantic work; its general lines are those 
of Gil y Zarate's Guzman el Bueno, Hugo's Crom- 
well and Dumas' Catherine Howard. The interest 
is entirely in the story, which is composed of epi- 



1 26 



The Romantic Dramas of Garcia Gutierrez 

sodes none too closely cemented. The author subjects 
himself to the same sort of difficulties as in El tro- 
vador, in which he combined the story of Azucena 
with the loves of Manrique and Leonor. In Ven- 
ganza catalana he intermingles the vengeance of 
Gircon with the loves of Maria and Roger; further 
complicates the story with the Margarita episode 
and the love of Ale jo for Maria; and connects all 
this with certain of the actual historical facts of 
the expedition of the Catalonians and Aragonese in 
Greece in 1304. Much of the popularity of the 
play must doubtless be credited (as in the case of 
Guzman el Bueno) to its patriotic note — a note 
which in this case is considerably out of harmony 
with the real facts of the case. Pineyro calls at- 
tention to the words of Maria at the end of Act III, 
which, he says, are regularly greeted with a storm 
of applause by the audience. 40 Miguel and Gircon 
hear the tolling of the bell summoning Roger's sol- 
diers to avenge his death, and ask what it means. 
Maria cries: 

jPregunta necia! 
jAnuncia el fin de la Grecia! 
jAnuncia el rencor de Espana! 

As a matter of fact Maria herself is a Byzantine 
Greek; Roger is a sort of free lance born in Italy 
of a German father; and the doings of a band of 
adventurous Catalonians and Aragonese soldiers, 



40 Op. cit., pp. 112, 113. 

127 



Romantic Plays Subsequent to "El Trovador" 

who in the early fourteenth century certainly had 
nothing of the modern idea of belonging to a united 
Spain, were hardly a legitimate cause for patriotic 
fervor in Madrid in 1864. 

Venganza catalana is really the last Romantic 
play w 7 hich Garcia Gutierrez wrote, the last which 
connects him with the school of Hugo and Dumas, 
By his contemporaries it was not considered his 
best, though its success inspired his friends to 
publish "en obsequio del autor" 41 the collection of 
his Obras escogidas. 

The compilers of the two- volume Autor es drama- 
ticos contempordneos y joy as del teatro espanol (Ma- 
drid, 1881), under the general editorship of Cano- 
vas del Castillo, selected to represent Garcia Gutie- 
rrez his play Juan Lorenzo. This play was produced 
in 1865, and is in four acts, all in verse. For the 
interest which it arouses it is less dependent upon 
the actual events related than any earlier play. It 
is at once a study of character and of the psycho- 
logy of the popular uprising in Valencia in 1519. 
Juan Lorenzo, a man of noble soul and lofty pur- 
poses, leads the cause of the workingmen against the 
nobility; his less restrained followers get beyond his 
control and undertake to expel all the nobles from 
Valencia and confiscate their property. When Lo- 
renzo protests against this persecution of the in- 
nocent along with the guilty, the men of the guilds 



41 See Obras escogidas, preface, p. v. 
128 



The Romantic Dramas of Garcia Gutierrez 

turn on him, accuse him of favoring the nobles and 
are clamoring for his death at the moment when, ex- 
hausted by his labors, chagrined at the ill success 
of his plans, aggrieved at the defection of his sup- 
posed friends and disheartened by his failure to ac- 
complish his ideas, he dies of a broken heart. A 
love-motif lends interest to the plot. This is the 
first and last time that Garcia Gutierrez attempted 
a serious character drama; a continuation of such 
success might have added much to his fame. 

Though Garcia Gutierrez lived until 1884, he 
produced but few more plays, and these show 
marked evidences of decline. He wrote one more 
zarzuela, El capitdn negrero (1865), neither espe- 
cially good nor especially bad — and one more 
historical play, Dona Urraca de Costilla, which 
manages to hold the reader's interest, while far 
below his earlier works in vigor and spontaneity. 
The other plays, Crisdlida y mariposa (1872), Una 
criolla (1877), Un cuento de ninos (1877), Un gra- 
no de arena (1880), are lifeless comedies, unworthy 
of the author of plays like El trovador and Simon 
Bocanegra. 



129 



CHAPTER V. 

Conclusion. 

As may well be inferred from the preceding study, 
Garcia Gutierrez is one of the most important 
figures in the Spanish Romantic movement. He 
showed himself to be an able follower of Martinez 
de la Rosa, the Duke of Rivas, and Larra, who 
began their careers as Romantic dramatists only a 
very short time in advance of him. In poetic power 
he surpassed them. The plays which we have con- 
sidered have revealed him as a skillful playwright, 
fertile in effective scenes and interesting plots. Under 
other influences he would doubtless have been able 
to moderate his tendency toward rather luridly 
melodramatic effects; in following this tendency he 
was but yielding to the literary fashion of his day. 
Various opinions may now be held with regard to 
the positive worth of that fashion and of the works 
which it produced, but we must not fail to judge 
Garcia Gutierrez as a product of his own age and 
time. That he holds high rank among his contem- 
poraries would hardly be disputed. The plots of his 



131 



Conclusion 

plays are neither more nor less extravagant than 
those of his compeers. Such men as Hartzenbusch, 
Zorrilla, Isidoro Gil and Gil y Zarate wrote in just 
the same vein and followed the same models. El 
trovador seems almost restrained if compared with 
the Duke of Rivas' Don Alvaro or Zorrilla's Don 
Juan Tenorio, and is of quite the same character 
as Hartzenbusch 's Los amantes de Teruel and La- 
rra's Macias. 

There is in many of the plays of Garcia Gutie- 
rrez a lyric note which raises them from the level 
of melodrama to that of true poetry, and which 
greatly enhances their worth. He has the power to 
imbue with poetic beauty even the wildest Romantic 
extravagances. Is it not precisely this power which 
gives vitality to the dramas of Victor Hugo? Dumas 
entirely lacked it and his plays are therefore mere 
melodramas. And so Hernani lives on, while the 
plays of Dumas are nearly forgotten. It seems 
strange that Garcia Gutierrez, possessed as he was 
of these lyric gifts, should have confined his ventures 
into the realm of lyric poetry proper to two small 
volumes. 42 It may not be amiss to quote here a 
few illustrative passages from his dramas. 

In El paje, not one of the author's best plays, 
there occur frequent outbursts of poetry worthy of 
a better environment. Let us read, for example, 
scene 8 of Act III. Dona Blanca surprises a look 



42 Poesias, Madrid, 1840; Luz y tinieblas, Madrid, 1842. 
132 



The Romantic Dramas of Garcia Gutierrez 

of pain on the face of her page Ferrando and asks 
him its cause. He replies: 

Ya no hay tormentos 
Que no sufra mi pecho lastimado. 
Paso ya un tiempo en que la mente mia 
De una beldad el hechicero halago 
Con placer melancolico veia 
Sin poderlo gozar; dichoso, empero, 
Mi corazon ardiente palpitaba, 
Porque un vago placer le alimentaba. 
jCuantas veces entonces desvelado 
O en suenos apacibles, la veia, 
Fantastica vision siempre a mi lado! 
Y era ella misma, con su tez de nieve, 
Con su sonrisa que de amor abrasa. . . 

Dona Blanca: 

j Pronto fuiste infeliz! 

Ferrando: 

jTus ojos vierten 
Llanto de compasion! j Dichoso el hombre 
Que del llanto de un angel es la causa! 
Dime, dime, senora: <Jtu de amores 
Lloraste alguna vez? jAy! jCuan terrible 
Es amar en silencio, alimentarse 
De lagrimas ardientes, ver la vida 
Entre amargos ensuenos deslizarse! 

Again, the confessional scene of El rey monje 
(Act V, scene 4) is especially rich in passages of 
lyric beauty. Dona Isabel, loved long years before 
by Don Ramiro, now a monk, comes to his confes- 
sional and asks absolution because she has never 



133 



Conclusion 

been able to forget the love of her youth. They 
do not recognize each other until after the confes- 
sion has been made. 

Don Ramiro: 

i Asi pasan por la vida 
Una tras otra ilusion, 
Que con belleza mentida 
Despiertan del corazon 
La esperanza adormecida! 

Y palpitando y ardiente 

Se arrastra el afan del hombre 
Tras de un fantasma luciente, 
Tras de una cosa sin nombre, 
Sueno tal vez de su mente. 
El alma luego cansada, 

Y en negras sombras perdida, 
Vuelve a vagar en la nada, 
Al mirar desvanecida 
Su bella ilusion dorada; 

Y esto, mujer, es vivir. . . 
Esperar siempre o gemir 
En sueno triste o risueno, 

Y tener miedo al morir, 
Aunque este es el fin del sueno. 

Dona Isabel: 

Peque; pero insensata ame el pecado; 
Que no supe a su halago resistir, 
Y en ardiente placer embriagado 
Senti en mi pecho el corazon latir. 

Y dia y noche en veladora cuita, 
De santo altar arrodillada al pie, 
A aquella Madre del Senor, bendita, 
Por el ingrato sin cesar rogue. 

134 









The Romantic Dramas of Garcia Gutierrez 

Yo, que he llenado de amargura y duelo 
De un triste padre la infeliz vejez, 
Yo, que le abri la tumba, jsanto cielo! 
No maldije mi amor sola una vez. 

Piedad de mi; que desdichada he sido, 
Merezca al menos mi dolor piedad; 
jAcaso mi destino se ha cumplido 
Y llega la terrible eternidad! 

Don Ratniro: 

Enlutada misteriosa, 
Ya escuche tu confesion; 
Y cual tu no hubiera cosa 
Si eres, mujer, tan hermosa 
Como lo es tu corazon. 
<:De que he de absolverte yo, 
Blanca azucena inocente, 
Porque infame pie te hollo? 
Alza del suelo la f rente; 
Que a Dios no ofendiste, no. 
;Tu viniste a derramar, 
Angel puro, en el altar 
Las lagrimas del pecado! 
Yo tambien, mujer, he amado. . . 
jEs tan hermoso el amar! 
I Pecado! Dale otro nombre: 
Esa es la vida, es la luz. . . 
El mismo Dios, no te asombre, 
Murio, por su amor al hombre, 
Enclavado en una cruz. 

The gift of writing vigorous as well as pathetic 
verse did not desert Garcia Gutierrez as he grew 
older. The following lines from Venganza catalana 
(Act II, scene 4) also show, incidentally, the combi- 



135 



Conclusion 

nation of lines of different length, which he some- 
times used to give variety to his verse: 

Doloroso ejercicio 

El de las armas es, y todo gime, 

Donde la impia guerra 

Su dura planta imprime. 

No hay mal que en pos no Ueve, 

Ni crimen, ni dolor, ni sacrificio; 

Mas, <;quien su furia a contener se atreve? 

Leyes dictad al huracan furioso 

Cuando sus iras con fragor desata, 

Y enfrenad el impulso vigoroso 
Del turbulento mar: solo la mano 
Del Hacedor, ante quien todo cede 

Y el impetu le presta sobrehumano, 
A sus preceptos sujetarlos puede. 

It was this poetic power, it should be noted, that 
gave to Garcia Gutierrez a high place among the 
Romantic dramatists; without it he might well have 
remained a figure of secondary importance, like Isi- 
dore Gil. We have endeavored to show in the fore- 
going chapters that the author of El trovador was 
a worthy follower of his immediate predecessors, 
without contributing anything entirely new and 
original to the principles of dramatic composition. 
He was content to follow the ideas prevalent at the 
time when he began his literary career. The general 
characteristics of the Romantic movement had be- 
come established before he exhibited them in his 
works. We have likewise endeavored to show that 
while the germs of Romanticism were in the Spanish 



136 



The Romantic Dramas of Garcia Gutierrez 

theatre of the Siglo de Oro and had persisted be- 
neath the surface even during the Eighteenth Cent- 
ury, it required an external influence coming from 
France to bring Spanish Romanticism to flower. The 
general characteristics of the work of Garcia Gutie- 
rrez were strikingly those of Hugo and Dumas. 

The partisans of Romanticism in all lands en- 
deavored to give expression not to widespread and 
generally accepted truths but to the individual, with 
his particular strivings and passions; they sought 
to describe the conflict of the individual with the 
laws and conventions of society. Hernani, Ruy Bias, 
Antony, Buridan, Don Alvaro, Macias and Diego 
MarsiUa are all examples of this tendency; and 
Garcia Gutierrez formed the character of the trou- 
badour Manrique in precisely the same mould as 
he did the characters of El paje, El rey monje, El 
tesorero del rey, Simon Bocanegra, Venganza cata- 
lana and of his other Romantic dramas. 

As is the case with the French Romantic plays, 
the dramas of Garcia Gutierrez appeal not to the 
reason but to the emotions. Manrique, for example, 
when he is confronted with an emergency does not 
stop like a Cornelian hero to consider just what his 
duty is; his feelings give him an unhesitating impulse 
to follow a certain course of action and without 
further ado he follows it. Not for a moment does he 
reason as to whether he ought to carry off Leonor 
from the convent ; he loves her, desires her, and flees 
with her. The same impulsive course is followed by 



137 



Conclusion 

Antony. And so the spectator must follow not his 
reason but his emotions if he is to enjoy such plays. 
He must likewise be more concerned with the action 
per se than with any development of character. 
Though here it should be stated that Garcia Gutie- 
rrez was far less negligent in the creation of his 
characters than most of his contemporaries; the 
women characters especially are endowed with 
vitality enough to be real persons and are not mere 
personifications of ambition, hatred, passion or what 
not, like the characters of the theatre of the elder 
Dumas. 

Garcia Gutierrez and his Spanish contemporaries 
also followed the principles of the French Roman- 
ticists in more external matters. They went back 
to the Middle Ages for their subjects and sought 
the same effects of color and picturesqueness. In 
the matter of verse and verse-forms the Spaniards 
were the more liberal; not content as were the 
French with merely giving more elasticity to one 
set form of verse, they employed a large variety of 
metres and even wrote some of their plays in alter- 
nating verse and prose. With regard to the number 
of acts, too, the Spaniards were more free, employ- 
ing indifferently three, four or five. They frequently 
borrowed the French practice of giving a title to each 
of the acts. In these general respects Garcia Gu- 
tierrez was quite as much indebted to the French as 
were his Spanish contemporaries. We have further 
endeavored to point out some of our author's par- 



138 



The Romantic Dramas of Garcia Gutierrez 

ticular and, so to speak, private debts. In the case 
of El trovador we have seen that he was much be- 
holden to Larra's Macias and that Macias in turn 
owed much to Dumas' Henri HI et sa cour. Since 
Garcia Gutierrez translated for the Spanish stage 
Dumas' La tour de Nesle, Don Juan de Marana 
and Caligula, it seems all the more natural that the 
prolific French author's works should have been 
often present in the Spaniard's mind and should 
have furnished suggestions for his plays. His par- 
ticular indebtedness for scenes or characters is, how- 
ever, not nearly so important as his larger debt for 
the style and spirit of his plays, which are typically 
Romantic productions, exhibiting the typical charac- 
teristics of the Romantic plays shown in the French 
capital. Garcia Gutierrez's distinctive merit lies in 
the fact that he was able to appropriate felicitously 
to himself the principles of the Romantic theatre, to 
produce on these principles dramas for which his 
contemporaries and later critics had a high regard, 43 
and to endow his works with poetic grace and 
beauty. 



48 See for example Larra's review of El trovador in Obras 
de Larra, Caracas, 1839, vol. ii, p. 41 ; Piiieyro, op. cit., pp. 
95-116 ; and Blanco Garcia, op. cit., vol. i, pp. 217-233. 

139 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

Chronological List of the Plays of Garcia Gutierrez. 

1. El vampiro. Comedia en un acto, escrita en f ranees 

por Scribe, y traducida al castellano por D. Antonio 
Garcia Gutierrez. Madrid, 1839. (This play was 
first represented in 1834.) 

2. BatUde, o la AtnSrica del Norte en 1775. Drama histo- 

rico en cinco actos, escrito en francos por Mr. Scribe 
y traducido por D. Antonio Garcia Gutierrez. Ma- 
drid, 1835. 

3. El cudkero y la comica. Comedia en dos actos, escri- 

ta en frances por Mr. Scribe, y traducida al caste- 
llano por D. A. G. G. Madrid, 1835. 

4. El trovador. Drama caballeresco en cinco jornadas, 

en prosa y verso. Su autor, D. Antonio Garcia Gu- 
tierrez. Madrid, 1836. 

5. Margarita de Borgona. Drama en cinco actos y en 

prosa, del celebre Alejandro Dumas. Madrid, 1836. 

6. El paje. Drama en cuatro jornadas, en prosa y verso. 

Su autor, D. Antonio Garcia Gutierrez. Madrid, 1837. 

7. El sitio de Bilbao. Drama de circumstancias, en dos 

actos, en prosa y verso. Madrid, 1837. 

8. Magdalena. Drama original en cinco actos, en verso y 

prosa. Su autor, D. Antonio Garcia Guti6rrez. Ma- 
drid, 1837. 

9. La pandilla, la election de un diputado. Comedia en 

cinco actos y en prosa, escrita en francos por Mr. 
Scribe. Madrid, 1837. 

10. El rey monje. Drama original en cinco actos y en 

verso. Su autor, D. Antonio Garcia Gutidrrez. Ma- 
drid, 1839. (First represented in 1837.) 

11. El bastardo. Drama original, en cinco actos, por D. 

Antonio Garcia Guiterrez. Madrid, 1838. 

141 



Bibliography 

12. Juan Dandolo. Drama en tres actos y en verso, por 

D. Jose Zorrilla y D. Antonio Garcia Gutierrez. Ma- 
drid, 1839. 

13. Samuel. Drama en cuatro actos, en prosa y verso, por 

D. Antonio Garcia Gutierrez. Madrid, 1839. 

14. Caligula. Drama en cinco actos, precedido de un pro- 

logo, por Alejandro Dumas. Traducido por D. An- 
tonio Garcia Gutierrez. Madrid, 1839. 

15. Don Juan de Marana, o la caida de un angel. Miste- 

rio en cinco actos, y estos divididos en siete cuadros 
y dos intermedios. Escrito en frances por Mr. Ale- 
jandro Dumas. Madrid, 1839. 

16. Estela, o el padre y la hija. Drama en dos actos, tra- 

duction de D. Antonio Garcia Gutierrez. Habana, 
1839; Madrid, 1852. 

17. Los desposorios de Ines. Drama en tres actos y en 

verso, por D. A. Garcia Gutierrez. Madrid, 1840. 

18. El encubierto de Valencia. Drama en cinco actos y en 

verso, por D. Antonio Garcia Gutierrez. Madrid, 
1840. 

19. El caballero de industria. Comedia original en tres 

actos y en verso, por D. Antonio Garcia Gutierrez. 
Madrid, 1841. 

20. El caballero leal. Drama historico original, en tres ac- 

tos y en verso, por D. Antonio Garcia Gutierrez. 
Madrid, 1841. 

21. Zaida. Drama original en cuatro actos y en verso, por 

D. Antonio Garcia Gutierrez. Madrid, 1841. 

22. Juan de Suavia. Drama en cuatro actos y en prosa. 

Madrid, 1841. Arreglado del frances por los Sres. 
D. Antonio Garcia Gutierrez y D. Isidoro Gil. 

23. El premio del vencedor. Drama en tres actos y en 

verso, por D. Antonio Garcia Gutierrez. Madrid, 
1842. 

24. Simon Bocanegra. Drama en cuatro actos, precedido 

de un prologo, por D. Antonio Garcia Guti6rrez. 
Madrid, 1843. 

25. De un apuro, otro mayor. Comedia en dos actos, por 

D. Antonio Garcia Gutierrez. Madrid, 1843. 

26. El hijo del emigrado. Drama en cuatro actos, escrito 

en frances por Mr. A. Bourgeois. Traducido libre- 
mente por D. A. G. Gutierrez.) Madrid, no date. 
(It was first represented in 1843.) 

27. La opera y el sermon. Comedia en dos actos, escrita 

en frances por Mr. Laurencin. (Traducida libremen- 

142 



The Romantic Dramas of Garcia Gutierrez 

te por D. A. G. Gutierrez.) Madrid, no date. (It 
was first represented in 1843.) 

28. El galdn invisible. Comedia en dos actos, escrita en 

frances por Mr. Melesville. (Traducida por D. A. 
Garcia Gutierrez. Madrid, 1844. 

29. Las bodas de Dona Sancha. Drama original en tres 

actos y en verso. Su autor, D. Antonio Garcia Gu- 
tierrez. Madrid, 1844. 

30. Gabriel. Drama original, en tres actos y en verso, 

por don Antonio Garcia Gutierrez. Madrid, 1844. 

31. Empenos de una venganza. Drama original en tres ac- 

tos y en verso. Su autor, D. Antonio Garcia Gu- 
tierrez, Madrid, 1844. 

32. La mujer valerosa. Drama en cuatro actos y en verso. 

Su autor, D. Antonio Garcia Gutierrez. Madrid, 
1844. 

33. Los alcaldes de Valladolid. Drama en tres actos y en 

verso, original de don Antonio Garcia Guti6rrez. M6- 
rida de Yucatan, 1844. 

34. El secreto del ahorcado. Drama en cuatro actos, por 

D. Antonio Garcia Gutierrez. Merida de Yucatan, 
1845. 

35. La gracia de Dios. Comedia en cuatro actos, de Mr. 

Gustavo Lemoine, traducida el castellano por D. 
Antonio Garcia Gutierrez. Habana, 1846. 

36. Los hijos del tio Tronera (parodia del Trovador). Co- 

media en un acto y en verso, por D. Antonio Gar- 
cia Gutierrez. Habana, 1846. 

37. El tejedor de Jdtiva. Drama en tres actos, original y 

en verso de los sefiores D. Antonio Garcia Guti6rrez 
y D. Eduardo Asquerino. Madrid, 1850. 
3S. El tesorero del rey. Drama en cuatro actos, original 
de D. Antonio Garcia Guti6rrez y D. Eduardo As- 
querino. Madrid, 1850. 

39. A feet os de odio y amor. Comedia en tres actos y en 

verso, original de D. Antonio Garcia Guti6rrez. Ma- 
drid, 1850. 

40. Dos a dos. Comedia en un acto, por D. Antonio Gar- 

cia Gutierrez. Censurada para el teatro de Tacon 
en 4 de Noviembre de 1851. 

41. El trovador. Drama en cinco jornadas y en verso, por 

D. Antonio G. Gutierrez. Refundido para el teatro 
Espanol. Madrid, 1851. 

42. Los millonarios. Comedia en tres actos, original de D. 

Antonio Garcia Gutierrez. Madrid, 1851. 

143 



Bibliography 

43. La Baltasara. Drama en tres actos y en verso, por 

D. Miguel Agustin Principe, D. Antonio Gil y Za- 
rate y don Antonio Garcia Gutierrez. Madrid, 1852. 

44. El grume te. Zarzuela en un acto, letra de D. Anto- 

nio Garcia Gutierrez, musica de D. Emilio Arrieta. 
Madrid, 1853. 

45. La espada de Bernardo. Zarzuela en tres actos y en 

verso, letra de D. Antonio Garcia Gutierrez, musica 
de D. Francisco Asenjo Barbieri. Madrid, 1853. 

46. La caceria red. Zarzuela en tres actos, letra de D. 

Antonio Garcia Gutierrez, musica de D. Emilia Arrie- 
ta. Madrid, 1854. 

47. Un dia de reinado. Zarzuela en tres actos, traducida 

y arreglada de una opera comica francesa de MM. 
Scribe at de Saint-Georges, por D. A. Garcia Gu- 
tierrez y D. L. Olona. Madrid, 1854. 

48. La bondad sin la experiencia. Comedia en tres actos 

por D. Antonio Garcia Gutierrez. Madrid, 1855. 

49. Azon Visconti. Zarzuela en tres actos, letra de D. An- 

tonio Garcia Gutierrez, musica de D. Emilio Arrieta. 
Madrid, 1858. 

50. Cegar para ver. Zarzuela en un acto, letra de D. An- 

tonio Garcia Gutierrez, musica de Salvador Ruiz. 
Madrid, 1859. 

51. El robo de las sabinas. Zarzuela en dos actos, letra de 

Antonio Garcia Gutierrez, musica de D. Francisco 
Asenjo Barbieri. Madrid, 1859. 

52. Un duelo a muerte. Drama en tres actos y en verso, 

por D. Antonio Garcia Gutierrez. Madrid, 1860. (An 
adaptation of Lessing's Emilia Galotti.) 

53. Llamada y tropa. Zarzuela en dos actos, letra de D. 

Antonio Garcia Gutierrez, musica de D. Emilio Arrie- 
ta. Madrid, 1861. 

54. Dos coronas. Zarzuela en tres actos y en verso, arre- 

glada del f ranees, letra de D. Antonio Garcia Gu- 
tierrez, musica de D. Emilio Arrieta. Madrid, 1861. 

55. Golan de noche. Zarzuela en dos actos y en verso 

(traduccion), letra de D. Antonio Garcia Gutienez, 
musica de D. Jose Inzenga. Madrid, 1862. 

56. La tabernera de Londres. Zarzuela original, en tres 

actos, letra de D. Antonio Garcia Gutierrez, musi- 
ca de D. Emilio Arrieta. Madrid, 1862. 

57. La vuelta del corsario. (Segunda parte del Grumete). 

Zarzuela en un acto, letra de D. Antonio Garcia 
tierrez, musica de D. Emilio Arrieta. Madrid, 1863. 



144 



The Romantic Dramas of Garcia Gutierrez 

5S. Eclipse parcicd. Comedia en tres actos, por D. Anto- 
nio Garcia Gutierrez. Madrid, 1863. 

SO. Las cartas se vuelven lanzas. Comedia en tres actos, por 
D. Antonio Garcia Gutierrez. Madrid, 1864. 

60. Venganza catalana. Drama en cuatro actos, por D. 

Antonio Garcia Gutierrez. Madrid, 1864. 

61. Juan Lorenzo. Drama en cuatro actos, por D. Anto- 

nio Garcia Gutierrez. Madrid, 1865. 

62. El capitun negrero. Zarzuela en tres actos, letra de 

D. Antonio Garcia Gutierrez, musica de D. Emilio 
Arrieta. Madrid, 1865. 
6?. Crisdlida y mariposa. Juguete comico en dos actos, 
por D. Antonio Garcia Gutierrez. Madrid, 1872. 

64. Dona Urraca de Castilla. Comedia en tres actos y en 

verso, original de D. Antonio Garcia Gutierrez. Ma- 
drid, 1872. 

65. Nobleza obliga. Comedia en tres actos y en verso, ori- 

ginal de D. Antonio Garcia Gutierrez. Madrid, 1872. 

66. TJn cuento de ninos. Comedia en dos actos y en ver- 

so, original de D. Antonio Garcia Gutierrez. Ma- 
drid, 1877. 

67. Una criolla. Comedia en tres actos y en verso por D. 

Antonio Garcia Gutierrez. Madrid, 1877. 

68. Un grano de arena. Comedia en tres actos y en ver- 

so, original de D. Antonio Garcia Gutierrez. Ma- 

v drid, 1880. 

(The above list is copied from the title-pages of the plays 

and from the list furnished by Hartzenbusch in Obras esco- 

gidas de Don Antonio Garcia Gutierrez, Madrid, 1866, with 

the addition of those published after 1866.) 

Non-Dramatic Works of Garcia Gutierrez 

1. Un baile en casa de Abr antes. Madrid, 1834. 

2. Poesias. Madrid, 1840. 

3. Luz y tinieblas. Poesias sagradas v profanas. Ma- 

drid, 1842. 

4. El duende de Valladolid, tradition yucateca. Madrid, 

" 1850. 

5. Articles entitled El Cazador and El Memorialista in Los 

espaholes pintados por si mismos, Madrid, 1851. 

6. Discurso de recepc'wn en la Real Academia Espanola, 

Madrid, 1862. 

7. Al rey de Espaiia, Amadeo I. Oda. Madrid, 1871. 

1 4 5 



Bibliography 

The only collected edition of certain of Garcia Gutierrez's 
works is the one already mentioned: 

Obras escogidas de Don Antonio Garcia Gutierrez. Edi- 
tion hecha en obsequio del autor. Madrid, Rivadeneyra, 
1866. (This collection was made by a committee, the chair- 
man of which was Juan Eugenio Hartzenbusch. It con- 
tains the following plays : El trovador, El paje, El rey mon- 
je, Juan Dandolo, Samuel, El tesorero del rey, La espada 
de Bernardo, El grumete, La caceria real, La bondad sin la 
experiencia, Un duelo a muerte, La vuelta del corsario, 
Venganza catalana, Juan Lorenzo, El capitan negrero, Las 
caiias se vuelven lanzas.) 

Works Devoted Exclusively to Garcia Gutierrez. 

Funes, Enrique. Garcia Gutierrez: Estudio critico de su 
obra dramdtica. Cadiz and Madrid, 1900. 

Regensburger, Karl. Vber den Trovador des Garcia Gu- 
tierrez. Berlin, 1911. 

Works Containing Criticism of Garcia Gutierrez's Plays. 

Blanco Garcia. La Hteratura espanola en el siglo XIX. 3 
vols. 3d edition, Madrid, 1910. Vol. Ill, chap. xii. 

Hartzenbusch, J. E. Obras escogidas de Garcia GutUrrez, 
already mentioned. Prologo, pp. v-xxii. 

Larra, J. M. de. Obras, 2 vols. Caracas, 1839. Vol. II, pp. 
41-45. There is another edition entitled Obras com- 
pletas de Figaro. Paris, 1848, 2 vols. 

Novo y Colson, Pedro de. Ant ores dramdticos contempo- 
mneos y joyas del teatro espanol del siglo XIX. 2 
vols. Madrid, 1881. Vol I, pp. 81-96, by Cayetano 
Rosell. 

Pineyro, Enrique. El romanticismo en Espaha. Paris, 1904. 
Pp. 95-116. 

The current manuals and histories of Spanish Literature, 
such as those by Fitzmaurice-Kelly, Butler-Clarke, Ernest 
Merimee, Schack, Revilla, Salcedo Ruiz and others devote 
very little space to Garcia Gutierrez and add nothing to the 
information contained in the works mentioned above. 



1 46 



The Romantic Dramas of Garcia Gutierrez 

Works Bearing on the Romantic Drama in Spain, 

Azorin (Martinez Ruiz, Jose). Rivds y Larva: razon social 

del romanticism o. Madrid, 1916. 
Donoso Cortes. Obras. Madrid, 1854. 2 vols. See in vol. 

II the article entitled El clasicismo y el romanticis- 

mo, which was first published in El Correo National 

in 1838. 
Ferrer del Rio. Galeria de la liter atura espaiiola, Madrid, 

1846. 
Hume, Martin A. S.- Modern Spain, 1783-1898. New York, 

1900, , 
Huszar, Guillaume. L'influcncc de I'Espagne sur le theatre 

frangais des XV 111 et XIX Steele s. Paris, 1912. 
Le Gentil, Georges. Le poete Breton de los Herreros et la 

societe espagnole de 1830 a 1S60. Paris, 1909. 
Menendez y Pelayo, M. Historia de las ideas esteticas en 

Espaiia. Or vols., Madrid, 1883-1891. 2d edition, vol. 

VI, Madrid, 1904; vol. VII, Madrid, 1907. 
Menendez y Pelayo, M. Estndios de critica literaria. S vols. 

Madrid, 189^1908. 
Mesonero Romanos, R. de. Memorias de un setenton, na- 
tural yvecino de Madrid. Madrid, 1880. 
Mesonero Romanos, R. de. Obras. Madrid, 1881. 
Molins, Marques de. Breton de los Herreros. Madrid, 1883. 
Villergas, Jose. Juicio critico de los poetas espanoles con- 

tempordneos. Paris, -1854. 
Yxart, Jose. El arte escenico en Espaiia. 2 vols. Barcelona, 

1894-1896. 
Zorrilla, Jose. Recuerdos del tiempo viejo. Madrid, 1882. 



Finis 



147 



CONTENTS 



Page 

Chapter I. Biographical Sketch 9 

Chapter II. The Advent of the Romantic Drama 

in Spain - 23 

Chapter III. First Dramatic Attempts and El Tro- 

vador 51 

Chapter IV. Romantic Plays Subsequent to El Tro- 

vador - .: .-. 103 

Chapter V. Conclusion 131 

Bibliography 141 



149 



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